Netherlands to provide €90m for drone production in Ukraine

The Netherlands will soon allocate a new €90 million aid package to support the production of reconnaissance and attack drones in Ukraine.

As reported by a European Pravda correspondent, Dutch Defence Minister Ruben Brekelmans announced that the Netherlands will provide Ukraine with €90 million to strengthen drone production.

"The Netherlands is doing more than ever [for Ukraine – ed.]. A few days ago, I announced €200 million in counter-UAV support. Today I announced another €90 million support package for drones – both ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) drones and attack drones," Brekelmans said.

He added that the Netherlands believes Ukraine's industry "still has the capacity to produce more, and that's why we are investing another €90 million in order to do that".

"Now Putin feels that he gains with every day of continuing Russian aggression in Ukraine and we need to make sure that the costs for Putin go up. That means a stable flow and also a long-term commitment to Ukraine, when it comes to military support," the minister stressed.

He clarified that this includes both bilateral agreements and broader projects "using other means like the frozen assets".

"We need to make sure that by more sanctions, more economic pressure on Russia, Putin feels that he can not continue this way, and that we in the end, together with Ukraine, will prevail," Brekelmans said.

On 15 October, Finland announced that it has joined US-led arms procurement for Ukraine under the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) initiative.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte previously said that new countries would soon join PURL.

Ukraine is prioritising the issue of financing arms purchases from the United States under the PURL programme during a series of events involving NATO defence ministers in Brussels on 15 October, to which Ukrainian Minister Denys Shmyhal has also been invited.