Zelensky Calls for Expanded US-Ukraine Drone Cooperation Ahead of Expected Russian Attacks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday and said he is still hoping to land a major deal to buy advanced US military drones. He described such an agreement as a potentially “huge” game-changer in the war.

Zelensky told the program that American technological companies have a lot of different interesting AI technologies that Ukraine does not have, and Ukraine has a lot of things they do not have because of its experience.

He said he thinks cooperation between the US and Ukraine on drones can be huge and the most powerful in the world. While the US and Ukraine have had some cooperation on drones, there hasn’t been a comprehensive deal signed at the scale Zelensky has in mind, according to the Ukrainian leader.

Ukraine is aiming to crank out a massive 7 million drones this year alone for both use in the skies and water.

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has put an emphasis on building up American drone capabilities. ” Last week, Sen. ) and Rep. ) met with officials in Ukraine to discuss drones and other issues. Zelensky warned that Ukraine was set to be brutally pummeled by Russia by air again for the second week in a row.

“First of all, today at night, or tomorrow at night, we think that we will have big attacks from Russian side using drones, using cruise missiles and ballistic, and we see the preparation always,” he said. Last weekend, Russia pummeled Ukraine with some 600 drones and 90 missiles. Zelensky said the main reason Russia attacked last weekend was because they began to lose on the battlefield.

On Memorial Day weekend, Zelensky penned a missive to President Trump asking him for more Patriot missile systems. He contended that while Ukraine has considerable drone defense technology, it is lacking in ballistic missile defense. Zelensky echoed one of his brigadier generals’ assessments that the next six months will be a critical time for Kyiv.