military tells me. translator: about 30 companies in ukraine are already mass producing these drones. our goal is to purchase up to 200,000 by the end of the year. reporter: their backs up against the wall when russia s massive army invaded last year, the ukrainians quickly realized cheap air power could help keep them in the fight. first using modified consumer drones, now with more sophisticated uavs developed in ukraine, what the government here calls the army of drones project spearheaded by the minister of digital transformation. translator: this is a technological war and it s very important to understand how technology is developing and what we as a state can do to increase the number of drones. a certain revolution is also taking place regarding production scaling. reporter: while the ukrainians still won t admit dr direct involvement, the russians do admit they are concerned they might soon see more armed drones
flying toward moscow. it seems the russians are pretty concerned about the situation in the war in ukraine. there really isn t any part of the front line where the russians are moving ahead. it seems right now the ukrainians are hitting the russians in many places, like some of those rear echelon areas in the places russia has occupied in ukrainian territory. berdyansk is one of them. then you have those russian border areas where once again overnight the governor of the belgrade area say where the ukrainians say they have nothing to do with it. in those areas in russia, the russians are saying there are a lot of cross border attacks using those drones. clearly the ukrainians are able to project their power into
for months to do it. the comments came as ukraine s capital of kyiv continues to come under attack from russian missiles and drones. cnn s fred pleitgen is live in kyiv. what s the latest? reporter: hi, paula. what we ve seen over the past couple of days is a lot of attacks on the ukrainian capital by russian missiles and drones. the ukrainian air defenses seem to be getting better and better. the last attack, the ukrainians managed to shoot down all missiles and drones fired toward kyiv. at the same time, the ukrainian drone program is also picking up. it s one of the big success stories for the ukrainians. they believe it s the big eq equeq equalizer that can help them put pressure on the russians. that s something we are seeing now on russian territory as well. it seems that the ukrainians are now able to fly there.
after all, who doesn t want warring parties to lay down their arms? who doesn t want the killing to stop? but a cease fire that simply freezes current lines in place and enables putin to consolidate control over the territory he seized and then rest, rearm and reattack, that is not a just and lasting peace. it do you expect ukraine s allies to stand firm on this no cease fire claim if a cease fire would benefit putin? i would have to say at this point yes, that they are not interested in any cease fire. the ukrainians right now are conducting or about to conduct that counter offensive. they do believe, as you just heard, that russia would stop the fighting, consolidate and then attack again. so at this point, i think the ukrainians are not in any mood to stop. they say they re ready for it.
ukrai ukrainians say the drones areeq. this is a drone competition organized by ukraine s government with simulated attacks on ground targets, chasing fixed-wing drones and even drone dog fights. we were granted exclusive access on the condition we don t reveal the location. it s like a startup fair for fpv, or first-person view drones, small uavs that can drop mortars and grenades, flown by pilots wearing goggles from a makeshift trench. translator: our drones are very easy to use, especially if the pilot has flown similar drones. reporter: the stakes are immense, a general involved in drone procurement for ukraine s