Arms Trends in Ukraine: 29 December 2025

In 2025, Ukraine attracted a record $45 billion in international assistance, which was directed not only toward the transfer of ready-made systems but also toward Ukraine’s own defense production. The Armed Forces received 3 million FPV drones and 15,000 ground drones, the majority of which were domestically produced.

However, industry representatives note that financial resources remain insufficient to fully utilize the production capacity of Ukraine’s defense enterprises. In the coming year, Europe will have to take on a greater share of financial assistance to Ukraine, with the use of frozen Russian assets likely to play an instrumental role.

In this edition:

• Ukraine’s Defence in 2025: Key Highlights from MoD;

• Ukraine Has Full Technical Capability to Confront Russia Across All Parameters – Ukrainian Armor;

• Role of the Danish Model in Strengthening Ukraine’s Military Readiness;

• Ukraine’s Security Reshuffle (Budanov, Fedorov, Maliuk).

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Ukraine’s Defence in 2025: Key Highlights from MoD

Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence published a list of key highlights for 2025, including the number of certain drone categories delivered to the Armed Forces, the volume of international assistance, and other industry-related data.

• In 2025, Ukraine secured $45 billion in international assistance – the highest number since the start of the war. This is almost 30% more than last year.

• The main areas of support in 2025 included weapons and ammunition, the development of air and missile defense systems, investments in joint production and procurement for Ukraine’s defense-industrial complex, as well as training, repair, technical support, and logistics.

• Nearly $3 billion was provided to Ukraine from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets in the EU and the United Kingdom.

• More than 20 countries joined the PURL, a mechanism that enables the procurement of U.S. weapons, with total contributions exceeding $4 billion.

• Over $6 billion in foreign financing was directed to Ukraine’s defense industry, including through the Danish model.

• The Build with Ukraine and Build in Ukraine initiatives were launched.

• Ukraine’s military received a record 3 million FPV drones.

• More than 15,000 ground robotic systems were delivered to military units.

• Nearly 1,000 interceptor drone systems are now supplied to combat units every day.

• The DELTA combat digital system has been officially deployed across all levels of the Defence Forces of Ukraine. Supported by DELTA, Ukrainian defenders engage more than 2,000 enemy targets every day.

• During the recent REPMUS-25 exercises, Ukraine’s DELTA served as the core system for command and control of the combined team of participating nations. Check the list of my previous posts on Delta here.

• Direct drone procurement: MoD launched DOT-Chain Defence. It is a marketplace — a store where the military can order drones directly from manufacturers in just a few clicks, within the state-allocated budget.

  The selection includes more than 180 FPV drone models.

• The average time from order to delivery is 10 days. A total of 186 brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and two corps of the National Guard of Ukraine have already joined the project. The plan for next year is to shift 70% of drone procurement to the DOT-Chain Defence platform.

• The Ministry of Defence has developed and is scaling the first digital personnel record-keeping system, ‘Impulse’. With ‘Impulse’, personnel services will have access to up-to-date data on every service member and their assignment history, as well as the ability to generate reports and draft orders automatically. The entire process will be paperless, efficient, and transparent.

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Ukraine Has Full Technical Capability to Confront Russia Across All Parameters – Ukrainian Armor

Ukrainian Armor is one of Ukraine’s largest private defense manufacturers. The company develops and supplies the Armed Forces of Ukraine with VARTA-2 and Novator armored vehicles, mortars, ammunition, FPV drones, and other weapons systems.

In 2025, Ukrainian Armor reached the following production capacities for NATO-standard ammunition:

• up to 300,000 rounds of 155 mm,

• up to 100,000 rounds of 105 mm,

• up to 240,000 mortar rounds of various calibers.