Zelensky: Ukraine has capacity to produce $35B worth of drones, missiles in 2026

He made the announcement during a joint press briefing with Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, Ukrinform reports.

"The volume of missiles and drones [that Ukraine will be capable of producing] in 2026 is $35 billion. That is our current projection. We believe this is the reality we are in," Zelensky said.

He noted, however, that the actual output of drones and missiles would depend on the amount of financing secured. According to him, funding sources will include more than 30 bilateral security agreements already signed, as well as the potential use of frozen Russian assets.

"I started these discussions during the summit in Denmark. We are seeing a positive reaction from some leaders to whom I presented the relevant arguments," Zelensky said.

Zelensky added that Ukraine envisions three main packages for the use of frozen Russian assets:

"If we talk about weapons, because we want to use this money for some social things that our population needs, but first of all for weapons. We are ready for a package of Ukrainian production. The second package is European weapons that Ukraine does not produce. The third package is American weapons that neither Ukraine nor Europe produces. First of all, these are air defense systems," he said.

As reported, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently announced that the EU plans to allocate EUR 6 billion from the ERA loan, backed by frozen Russian assets, to join a "drone alliance" with Ukraine.

She recalled that drones account for over two-thirds of losses inflicted on Russian military equipment. At the same time, since Russia benefits from Iran's supply of Shahed drones and from mass-scale industrial production, the EU can mobilize its own industrial capacity to support Ukraine.