US and Ukraine in talks on drone investment deal
Ukrainian service members standing next to a deep strike unmanned aerial vehicle before its launch toward Russian territory.
KYIV - Ukraine and the United States are in detailed talks on a deal involving US investment in Kyiv's domestic drone production, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on July 18.
The announcement comes a day after President Volodymyr Zelensky tasked a reshuffled new government with
scaling up Ukraine's arms industry and strengthening ties with its strategic partners.
Ms Svyrydenko, speaking to reporters alongside several other new ministers in the capital Kyiv, said the deal would also lead to the US, Ukraine's biggest military backer in its war with Russia, purchasing Ukrainian drones.
'We plan to sign a 'drone deal' with the United States. We are discussing investments in the expansion of production of Ukrainian drones by the US,' she said.
'That is, we are talking about the purchase of a large batch of Ukrainian drones.'
Ms Svyrydenko added that a political decision on the deal had been made by Mr Zelensky and President Donald Trump, and that officials were already hashing out the details.
Mr Zelensky told the New York Post this week that he and Mr Trump were considering a deal for Washington to buy battlefield-tested Ukrainian drones in exchange for Kyiv purchasing weapons from the US.
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The Ukrainian government under Svyrydenko is expected to shore up ties with the Trump administration, which has grown increasingly critical of Russia since it stepped up air strikes on Ukraine.
Ms Svyrydenko is well-known in Washington, having
negotiated a high-level deal offering the US preferential access to Ukraine's mineral wealth that will feed a reconstruction fund.
At the briefing in Kyiv, economy minister Oleksiy Sobolev said the board of a joint US-Ukrainian fund will meet for the first time by the end of the summer. REUTERS
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