The Netherlands has allocated €400 million to a joint project with Ukraine to produce drones for war effort, defence minister Ruben Brekelmans said during a visit to the Ukrainian town of Kharkiv.

Half the drones will be developed in the Netherlands, the rest in Ukraine and elsewhere, Brekelmans said. The Netherlands, he said, had taken a pioneering role in the delivery of F-16 fighter jets and Patriot air defence systems. “Now we are focusing on advance drones,” he said.

The drones will be used for surveillance, defence and attack “mainly in the air, but also on land and at sea,” Brekelmans said.

If the drones are successful, more money will be made available to boost production, the defence ministry said later.

We blijven een voortrekkersrol vervullen in steun aan Oekraïne.

Daarom kondig ik in mijn bezoek aan Kharkiv en Kyiv een Actieplan Drones aan.

Voor €400 miljoen leveren we geavanceerde drones. Voor verkenning, verdediging én aanval. Bijna de helft wordt in Nederland ontwikkeld. pic.twitter.com/05Wk6kBY5j

— Ruben Brekelmans (@DefensieMin) October 6, 2024

In total, the Netherlands has set aside €10.4 billion to help the Ukrainian war effort, of which €3.8 billion worth of equipment, ranging from tanks to mine detectors, has already been delivered.

The first of the 24 F-16s donated by the Netherlands have now arrived in Ukraine and have been put to work, Brekelmans confirmed to news agency ANP at the weekend.