Ukraine will open 10 weapons export centers across Europe in 2026 and expects its first German-produced drone within days, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on 8 February during a visit to Kyiv’s Aviation Institute to mark the 120th anniversary of legendary aircraft designer Oleh Antonov’s birth.
The export hubs will span the Baltic states and Northern Europe, with all ten representative offices operational by year’s end.
“In mid-February, we will see the production of our drones in Germany. I will receive the first drone. This is a line that works. In Britain, production lines are already running. These are all our Ukrainian technologies,” Zelenskyy said. The export hubs will span the Baltic states and Northern Europe, with all ten representative offices operational by year’s end.
From buyer to seller
Four years ago, Ukraine was pleading for basic arms deliveries. Now its battle-tested drone technology is being manufactured on German soil, and 15 EU member states want to buy Ukrainian weapons through the bloc’s €150 billion SAFE defense fund.
The German production line belongs to Quantum Frontline Industries (QFI), a joint venture between Germany’s Quantum Systems and Ukrainian firm Frontline Robotics, announced in December under the “Build with Ukraine” initiative.
QFI plans to produce over 10,000 drones per year—frontline-proven Linza bombers and Zoom reconnaissance drones—on a fully automated line. All units go directly to Ukraine’s armed forces.
“Ukrainians have fundamentally changed the rules of drone warfare—now, together, we are changing the rules of defense-industrial production,” said Sven Kruck, Co-CEO of Quantum Systems.
Why Europe is buying Ukrainian
The demand is not charity. After Poland scrambled F-35s and fired Patriot missiles to intercept Russian Gerbera drones worth under $10,000 each last September, European capitals realized their existing air defense model was unaffordable.
Ukraine now intercepts around 80% of nightly Russian drone barrages, increasingly using low-cost interceptor drones rather than expensive missiles. That’s the technology Europe lacks.
Europe’s future security systems “will be based mostly on Ukrainian technologies and Ukrainian specialists.”
The EU’s planned Drone Wall—a continent-wide counter-drone shield set to launch in Q1 2026—will draw extensively on Ukrainian battlefield experience and is directly linked to a proposed Drone Alliance with Ukraine. Zelenskyy said Europe’s future security systems “will be based mostly on Ukrainian technologies and Ukrainian specialists.”
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RBC-Ukraine reported that Germany is also set to manufacture TYTAN interceptor drones, which are already deployed in combat. The same outlet said a Czech company working with volunteers has reverse-engineered captured Russian “Knyaz Vandal” fiber-optic FPV drones and is now supplying improved versions to Ukraine.
French automaker Renault, together with defense firm Turgis Gaillard, will produce long-range drones for Ukraine’s military.
The price of the export ban
The shift comes after years of wartime restrictions that left Ukrainian factories idle. A 2025 industry report found Ukrainian defense companies operating at just 55% capacity—able to nearly double output without new investment—while European defense ministers scrambled for exactly the production they were sitting on.
Lithuania is already exploring production of Ukrainian Magura sea drones.
Serhii Sternenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister, called the move overdue. “In 2025, the Russians earned about $15 billion from arms exports and invested it in new weapons. It was a big mistake to keep the export ban all this time,” he told UAWire. “Our warriors and our country will only benefit.”
Lithuania is already exploring production of Ukrainian Magura sea drones under a “1+1” scheme—one for itself, one for Ukraine—according to Ekonomichna Pravda. Zelenskyy stressed that frontline supply remains the priority: drones go first to brigades, then to national arsenals, and only third to controlled export.
