BBC :
Western technology and finance are helping Ukraine carry out hundreds of long-range strikes inside Russia.
That is despite Nato allies still refusing to give Ukraine permission to use Western-supplied munitions to do so – mostly because of fears of escalation.
Ukraine has been stepping up its long-range strikes inside Russia over the past few months, launching scores of drones simultaneously at strategic targets several times a week.
The targets include air force bases, oil and ammunition depots and command centres.
Ukrainian firms are now producing hundreds of armed one-way attack drones a month, at a fraction of the cost it takes to produce a similar drone in the West.
One company told the BBC it was already creating a disproportionate impact on Russia’s war economy at a relatively small expense.
The BBC has been briefed by a number of those involved in these missions. They include one of Ukraine’s largest one-way attack drone manufacturers, as well as a big data company which has helped develop software for Ukraine to carry out these strikes.
Francisco Serra-Martins says the strategy is already creating huge dilemmas for Moscow. He believes that with extra investment, it will turn the tide of the war in Ukraine’s favour.
Eighteen months ago, the company he co-founded, Terminal Autonomy, didn’t even exist. It is now producing more than a hundred AQ400 Scythe long-range drones a month, with a range of 750km (465 miles). The company also makes hundreds of shorter range AQ100 Bayonet drones a month, which can fly a few hundred kilometres.
Mr Serra-Martins, a former Australian Army Royal Engineer, set up the company with his Ukrainian co-founder, backed by US finance. It is one of at least three companies now producing drones in Ukraine at scale.
He describes his drones as “basically flying furniture – we assemble it like Ikea”. It takes about an hour to build the fuselage and half that time to put the brains inside it – the electronics, motor and explosives.
Palantir, a large US data analysis company, was one of the first Western tech companies to aid Ukraine’s war effort. It started by providing software to improve the speed and accuracy of its artillery strikes. Now it has given Ukraine new tools to plan its long-range drone strikes.
British engineers from Palantir, working with Ukrainian counterparts, have designed a programme to generate and map the best ways to reach a target. Palantir makes clear it is not involved in the missions, but has helped train more than 1,000 Ukrainians how to use its software.
The BBC has been shown how it works in principle. Using streams of data, it can map Russia’s air defences, radar and electronic jammers. The end product looks similar to a topographical chart.
The tighter the contours, the heavier the air defences. The locations have already been identified by Ukraine using commercial satellite imagery and signals intelligence.