Ukraine's top commander says Russia plans big boost in drone production

Jan 18 (Reuters) - Ukraine's top military commander said Russia is showing no signs of interest in talks leading to a peace deal and, instead, is boosting arms production, including a target of 1,000 drones per day.

"On the contrary, we see an increase in intensity of military actions, an increase in the number of offensive enemy groupings, an increase in production of strike weapons, missiles and drones," Oleksandr Syrskyi told the online media outlet lb.ua in an interview published on Sunday.

"At the moment, the enemy produces daily 404 'Shaheds' (Iranian-designed drones) of different kinds. And the plans are to increase that. The enemy plans to boost production significantly, up to 1,000 drones a day."

Ukraine's military, he said, has to do "everything to disrupt these plans and inflict losses so that the enemy renounces its plans, and also to create conditions in order to hold talks. No one is going to make a deal with a weak side."

Syrskyi also praised the Ukrainian military's "deep-strike" tactics, which he described as "our strong point," resulting in hits on 719 targets and $15 billion in damage, mainly to Russia's oil industry.

Ukraine has rapidly developed its capacity to produce drones since Russia launched its invasion of its smaller neighbour in February 2022 and is counting on further advances.

Russian forces hold about 20% of Ukrainian territory and are engaged in a slow advance through eastern Ukraine, announcing the capture of new villages several times a week.

Military leaders have stressed the importance of developing "interceptor drones" as the most efficient and economical means of combating Russian drone attacks, rather than using missiles.

Syrskyi acknowledged that Russia had the possibility to draw on far higher numbers to deploy in its units, but said mobilisation figures had improved in recent months.

"I can say this: we have much improved numbers in this regard than was the case, say, seven months ago," he told lb.ua.

The improvement, he said, was due to better operation of recruitment centres and training and "in terms of working with people, because we understand that, first of all, problems arise where there is no proper human treatment towards the people being mobilized".

Syrskyi also said Ukrainian losses in 2025 had been reduced by 13% compared to the previous year "while at the same time the level of enemy losses has risen significantly".

(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Bogdan Kochubey; Editing by Paul Simao)