Ukraine abandons a Chinese drone… as a strike hits Zelensky’s hometown

21st January 2026

2 minutes read

Ukraine abandons a Chinese drone… as a strike hits Zelensky’s hometown

Four years of fighting in Ukraine have given drones a dominant role on the battlefield, ushering in an era of “long-range strikes”, alongside traditional ground clashes.

In this context, Ukraine’s new Minister of Defense, Mykhailo Fedorov, announced that his country’s forces would begin using a domestically produced drone to replace the Chinese-made Mavic drone.

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Ukraine’s reliance on China for drones and their components is a major source of concern, given the close ties between Beijing and Moscow, according to the British newspaper The Guardian.

The commercially available Mavic drone is used for aerial reconnaissance along the front lines by both sides, although Ukraine already manufactures many of its own so-called “suicide” attack drones.

The Mavic is highly valued by Ukrainian army units, which often receive support from volunteer groups that organize ongoing campaigns to supply Chinese drones and raise funds to purchase them.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said: “We will have a version similar to the Mavic drone… with the same camera, but a longer flight range,” without disclosing the company producing the Ukrainian version.

Fedorov also pledged a comprehensive, data-driven overhaul of the Ukrainian army, aimed at rewarding commanders who achieve tangible results on the battlefield and giving Ukrainian forces an edge.

He explained that he would begin by reforming the vast administration of the Ministry of Defense and its spending, emphasizing the importance of “war calculations”.

He further promised to establish a system to control drone missions and artillery crews, in order to increase the volume of data available on crew performance and effectiveness.

He added that Ukraine would create a system allowing its allies to train their own military artificial intelligence models on Kyiv’s combat data, including battle statistics and millions of hours of drone-captured video footage.

These developments come as Russian overnight strikes on the city of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine killed a man and a woman and wounded another woman, according to Oleksandr Hanza, head of the regional military administration, who said that missile and drone attacks damaged numerous buildings.

Kryvyi Rih lies about 80 kilometers from the front line and is the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Earlier, a Russian air attack caused a power outage affecting more than one million people in Kyiv and disrupted substations supplying Ukraine’s nuclear power plants.