Russian President Vladimir Putin said that what is happening on the line of combat contact in Ukraine will determine the fate of the Russian Federation “for many years to come.” The Russian president said this in the context of a discussion of the decline in the local drone production market, Kommersant reports.
At a meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects, the president addressed the relevant Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Savelyev and read out a number of criteria by which drone production in Russia is declining. “We all understand perfectly well that to a large extent, what is happening on our line of combat contact, on the front, frankly speaking, will determine the life of our country for many years to come, and perhaps even for decades,” the president said.
After this, the Russian president said that he is “both surprised and delighted” by the fact that the Russian military, in combat conditions, independently designs drones and uses them in combat.
According to Putin, this indicates that “an environment has been created in Russia that generates such specialists.”
“But if we reduce the indicators of this environment, … then in the civil sphere and in the sphere of ensuring state security, we will not solve the problems that are solved today with the help of drones,” the media quotes the Russian president as saying.