Ukraine’s Lviv has become a hub for defense innovation, drawing international investors into Ukraine’s cutting-edge technologies. At the Defense Tech Valley 2025 summit, Ukrainian Defense Companies attracted over $100 million.

Amid ongoing war and without guaranteed US aid or security assurances, Ukraine faces a critical need for robust defense funding to secure victory.

The annual cost of the war currently amounts to around $120 billion, with Ukraine seeking to allocate $60 billion from its 2026 state budget for defense, roughly half of what is actually needed. The remaining funds must come from international partners, making global investment in Ukraine’s defense sector crucial.

Defense Tech Valley 2025 summit

Over 5,000 participants from 50+ countries attended Defense Tech Valley 2025. At the event, four companies from Europe and the US announced plans to invest over $100 million in Ukrainian defense tech.

Key investments include: 

• NUNC Capital (Netherlands): €20 million for advanced materials, electronic warfare, and smart manufacturing.
• Verne Capital (Germany-Luxembourg): up to €25 million in European defense and cybersecurity companies.
• Varangians (Sweden): closed its first deal (details forthcoming).
• Oedipus Inc.: Europe’s first permanent capital fund focused solely on defense tech.

Boosting Ukrainian defense tech

According to Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation, Brave1 has helped Ukrainian defense companies raise $90 million since 2024, with the average investment growing from $300K to $1 million. The initiative continues to expand Ukraine’s defense tech ecosystem and foster international collaboration.

Ukraine has become a hub of innovation during Russia’s war. Baykar CEO Haluk Bayraktar says the country is experiencing a true boom in technological innovation, and world leaders recognize its potential, UkrInform reports. 

From startups to large industrial companies

At the world’s largest aviation and space technology festival, TEKNOFEST 2025 in Istanbul, Bayraktar said that Ukraine has developed a powerful innovation base and gained valuable experience.

“The war has become a catalyst for rapid technological innovation: while there were only a few companies producing drones before, today there are already hundreds. The same applies to robotics and other high technologies,” he emphasized.

According to him, the key task now is to transform startups into large industrial enterprises.

Baykar supports Ukraine 

Bayraktar noted that Baykar’s Ukrainian office already employs more than 120 people, and the company continues to assist Ukraine both technologically and in other areas.

“In Ukraine, efforts are underway to harness this experience and give startups the opportunity to grow into larger companies on an industrial scale,” he said.

A new science and education center for Ukrainian youth

Beyond military innovations, Baykar, together with the National Center “Minor Academy of Sciences of Ukraine”, will create a modern educational center for children and young people.

“Ukrainian youth will have the opportunity to gain knowledge and education through the latest scientific and technological methodology already applied in Turkiye,” Bayraktar announced at the TEKNOFEST 2025.

He added that the Academy already hosts a Mathematics Museum, and the new center will expand practical opportunities for students in other sciences.

Ukrainian drone tech firm Ptashka Systems has presented a new way to counter Russian roadside ambush drones by using interceptor drones that drop nets on them. The system is designed to neutralize so-called “waiting drones” — FPVs that land near logistics routes, switch off their motors, and lie in ambush until a vehicle appears.

This Ptashka Systems’ solution avoids the loss of both Ukrainian drones and ammunition — Ukrainian drone pilots often destroy such roadside ambushes by striking them with their own FPV drones. Ukrainian forces already use nets in limited cases to intercept airborne drones.

Dropped nets disable ambush FPVs

Ptashka Systems published a video showing how its drones can release special cartridges carrying nets directly onto hidden Russian FPVs, waiting on the ground.

Once covered, the ambush drones cannot take off, as the nets block their propellers and render them uncontrollable, Militarnyi noted, adding that the advantage of this approach is that the enemy drone remains stuck in its ambush, forcing its operator to waste time waiting for a target that never comes.

“When the target appears, the net complicates or makes it impossible for the “waiting drone” to take off — it physically cannot rise because its propellers are blocked. This neutralization mechanism makes the drone uncontrollable and disables it,” Militarnyi says.

The developers invited Ukrainian Mavic drone pilots to take part in the effort and announced that Ptashka Systems is ready to provide free cartridges with nets to those operators.

A new Ukrainian military robot is rolling out. Oboronka news site reports that the 4-ton ground drone named “Bufalo” is diesel-powered, armored, and built for AI-assisted frontline logistics and demining.

Bufalo: Ukraine’s new diesel-driven ground drone for war

Bufalo’s key advantage is its diesel engine. Fuel tanks can be scaled by mission, giving it a range of 100–200 km without battery swaps. Developers say electric drones can’t meet today’s longer frontlines.

“Electric drones cannot cover the distance to deliver provisions and ammunition to the front,” said company head Vladyslav.

Built for real combat conditions

Bufalo’s chassis is armored with European steel. It withstands any bullet and indirect 152 mm artillery if shells land beyond 100 meters. Even if damaged, its wheels remain operational.

The drone uses Starlink with GPS or a radio link for communications. A CRPA antenna protects satellite signal from jamming. If Starlink fails or is disabled, a relay-equipped drone can take over the signal.

AI-driven navigation, but no killer robot

Bufalo uses onboard cameras to detect obstacles up to 15 meters away, suggest safe routes, and stop if needed. Navigation is assisted by AI, but decisions stay human-controlled.

“The robot can lock onto and follow a target, but it will not make decisions to destroy equipment or people. I will never allow it to make decisions in place of a human…” said Vladyslav.

From failure to battlefield resilience

The idea for Bufalo came after a drone prototype failed a demo—losing a wheel and flipping. A soldier dismissed the tech, pushing Vladyslav to start from scratch. His new team asked the General Staff for requirements and collected feedback from frontline units.

Requests included smoke grenades, armored wheels, a shielded bottom to resist mines, and Starlink integration. All were implemented.

Timeline and domestic focus

The Bufalo project launched in January 2025. From March to August, the team built and tested the demining version. That kit includes the drone, a hydraulic system, mulcher, control panel, and trailer.

What’s next for Bufalo?

Bufalo is modular and may get combat features soon. The team is exploring weapon modules and engineering tools like remote trenching scoops. An 11-channel radio jamming system has passed tests and is ready for integration.

“We’re building an infrastructurally simple drone, so one control system can be removed and another installed. We’ve made understandable communication interfaces. The EW manufacturer just needs to provide a connector—we’ll plug it in and it’ll work automatically,” said Vladyslav.

The team plans an official presentation, followed by codification and production. Initial output will be 10 drones per month, with plans to scale.

Ukraine confirmed on 14 September that its drone forces shot down a rare heavy Russian Orion UAV near the border in Kursk Oblast. The Orion is a cruise missile-capable heavy combat drone, rarely used by Moscow due to its limited availability and vulnerability to Ukrainian air defense, Militarnyi reports.

Ukrainian drone units intercept rare Orion UAV

According to the Commander of Ukraine’s Drone Systems Forces, Robert “Madyar” Brovdi, the 414th Separate Drone Systems Brigade successfully destroyed the Russian Orion drone using an interceptor UAV. This marked the first time the brigade brought down an Orion model, despite having previously intercepted nearly 1,500 enemy drones. These included various types such as Orlan, ZALA, SuperCam, Shahed, and Lancet, with larger targets like Merlin and Forpost among the most significant until now.

OSINT experts geolocated the interception site to the area around Tyotkino, in Kursk Oblast, Russia, just next to the Ukrainian border. The coordinates were confirmed as 51.2862, 34.3813. This location lies just across the border from Ukrainian territory.

A coordinated strike by multiple Ukrainian units

Before the final blow, the Orion UAV had already sustained damage from interceptor drones operated by Ukraine’s 95th Air Assault Brigade. The final strike was delivered by the Ptakhy Madyara team of the 414th brigade. 

The Russian military has rarely deployed Orion drones in combat due to both their limited numbers and high susceptibility to Ukraine’s layered air defense network, Militarnyi noted. 

Background on the Orion drone program

The Orion UAV was developed by the Kronstadt Group beginning in 2011. The first prototype was completed in 2015, with operational testing drones handed over in April 2020. Serial production began in August 2020.

According to Militarnyi, Orion can be armed with guided munitions including Kh-50 missiles, KAB-20 bombs, and other types such as UPAB-50, KAB-50, FAB-50, and the Kh-BPLA missile. It is also capable of launching the compact S8000 Banderol cruise missile.

[L'article Mycélium Remédium met les champignons au service de notre environnement a d'abord été publié dans InfoBref.]

Ukrainian defense tech CEO Yaroslav Azhnyuk delivered a stark warning to Western allies at Thursday’s defense cooperation forum in Lviv: hearing wake-up calls about Russian threats isn’t the same as waking up.

Speaking at the “Joint Ventures, Joint Defence” forum in Lviv, Azhnyuk challenged fundamental Western assumptions about Ukrainian innovation and military preparedness that could leave NATO vulnerable to the same threats now devastating Ukrainian forces.

Western armies sleep through drone revolution

“We live in many lies that we take for granted,” Azhnyuk told the defense technology audience. One of the most dangerous delusions: Western armies planning for future readiness while, if not ignoring current battlefield realities, then at least not taking them as seriously as they should.

“How many units in Western armies have units that have been trained to use them?” Azhnyuk asked rhetorically. “None at all or such a tiny percentage that we need a microscope to see it?”

Azhnyuk said that instead of getting prepared now, Western armies set readiness targets for 2027, 2029, or even 2031 for technology that’s being used in the battlefields today and will be redundant in a couple of years.

Azhnyuk speaks from direct experience. His companies—thermal camera manufacturer Odd Systems and AI firm TheFourthLaw.ai—develop technologies Western militaries are still planning to adopt.

Odd Systems produces Kurbas cameras, currently the world’s best 256-pixel thermal imaging systems for mass-manufactured FPV drones—technology born from battlefield necessity, not laboratory planning.

Ukraine isn’t the testing ground—Russia should be

Azhnyuk challenged another Western assumption: Ukraine is a “test ground” for defense technology.

“Russia should be that test field!” he declared, arguing that authoritarian threats from Russia and China will continue expanding without fundamental changes in Western strategic thinking, which is very cautious and slow to adapt to new realities.

The CEO also dismissed claims that Ukrainian innovations represent “low-tech” solutions with a pointed analogy: “An FPV drone is like a burger—you can assemble it in your kitchen, just like you can make a hamburger in your kitchen. Still, your kitchen-made hamburger isn’t McDonald’s.”

But that doesn’t mean the homemade version lacks the same components, Azhnyuk explained. The difference lies merely in packaging and marketing, not technological sophistication.

The gap isn’t in innovation but in scale and battlefield validation.

Market reality vs production hype

The latter reveals harsh realities: while there are hundreds, if not hundreds, of FPV drone producers operating globally, when asked, the frontline drone operators consistently identify only 4-5 reliable producers despite the theoretically crowded market.

Azhnyuk noted that the fact that only a handful of producers make reliable equipment tells us yet again about the differences between theory and praxis, between the laid-back attitude of many Western companies and the we-needed-it-yesterday feverish attitude of the Ukrainian producers, who work in a tight feedback loop with the men and women on the front.

Beyond military: Strategic blindness everywhere

Azhnyuk’s critique extended beyond military preparedness to broader Western strategic thinking. He cited European data protection claims while companies rely on Google Cloud services that may not comply with European laws.

He warned of upcoming election cycles that would bring “Russian-influenced and financed radical parties” to power across the West while military capability gaps persist.

The uncomfortable truth

The “Joint Ventures, Joint Defence” forum, organized by Tech Force in UA, brought together governments, global defense companies, and technology innovators to explore scaling joint defense production partnerships with Ukraine. The event featured booths from seven partner countries seeking drone and high-tech cooperation opportunities.

But Azhnyuk’s message cut deeper than partnership mechanics. Europeans constantly speak of various crises as “wake-up calls,” he observed, but there’s a critical difference: “Hearing a wake-up call is not the same as waking up.”

[L'article Le gouvernement fédéral veut que le champion canadien de l’IA l’aide à exploiter cette technologie a d'abord été publié dans InfoBref.]