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reports Politico. Denmark and the Netherlands are leading a coalition of 11 nations to support the training, but no country has publicly committed aircraft to the program. One training proposal that has been discussed involves bringing Ukrainian pilots to the US to receive instruction from the 162nd Air Wing, an Air National Guard unit based in Tucson, Arizona. But that idea has had little traction, according to two U.S. officials and a European official. They and others interviewed were granted anonymity to discuss plans that have not yet been finalised. Another plan involves sending US military pilots to Europe to train Ukrainians outside their country. Nothing is off the table, and no final decisions have been made, said two of the US officials. Despite the various ambitious timelines, training cannot start until the US State Department approves the transfer of associated training materials.
The government has allocated UAH 40B for investment in drone production. This year, the Cabinet of Ministers supplied UAH 40B for the production of Ukrainian drones, said Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal during a forum dedicated to the anniversary of the Army of Drones project. "War poses new challenges every day. One of the key ones is military technology. We must be one step ahead of the enemy and protect each of our soldiers. Drones provide such opportunities," the head of government said. He noted that a year ago, more than UAH 4B was collected through the UNITED24 platform and was then invested in Ukrainian drone manufacturers. At that time, there were less than a dozen such companies. "Today, more than 40 companies have contracts with the state, and the production of UAVs has increased tenfold," Shmyhal said.
Spain, UK against provision of cluster bombs to Ukraine. U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Spanish defence Minister Margarita Robles on July 8 came out against the provision of cluster munitions to Ukraine by the U.S.
Germany to present $770mn package for Ukraine, including new Patriots. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and defence Minister Boris Pistorius will present a new support package worth $770mn at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on July 11.
Ukraine has caught up with Russia's tank numbers. According to Bloomberg, new data on military aid to Ukraine highlights a significant change in the balance of heavy weapons on the nation’s battlefields after 500 days of war. The Ukraine Support Tracker database maintained by Germany’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy said Kyiv’s backers have delivered 471 new tanks since the start of the war, with a further 286 still to arrive, even as the rate of new pledges slows. Combined with a tally of equipment lost or captured by the open source intelligence group Oryx, widely considered conservative, the figures suggest that Ukraine’s tank fleet has grown since the start of the invasion last year, even as Russia’s has been halved. The artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems gap also narrowed, although by much smaller margins. According to Oryx, which records only losses it can confirm, 2,082 Russian tanks have been destroyed, damaged, abandoned, or captured since the war. Moscow began with 3,417 tanks available, but now it has only 1,400 tanks. Ukraine started the war with less than 1,000 tanks and now has 1,500 tanks after 1.5 years of war.
Factory to produce Bayraktar drones under construction in Ukraine. The Turkish company Baykar has already started constructing a factory in Ukraine to produce Bayraktar drones, Minister for Strategic Industries Oleksandr
16 UKRAINE Country Report August 2023 www.intellinews.com