Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday he had issued orders to increase funding for equipping the country’s brigades with new drones.
Zelensky, speaking in his nightly video address, said he had received a report from Pavlo Palisa, a former military commander and the president’s newly-appointed deputy chief of staff, to provide additional funding for drones.
“We recently approved a decision about the amount of such direct funds. But now I see that the amount is insufficient,” Zelensky said.
“I instructed the prime minister to increase financing for brigades in the coming days, to increase several times over.”
Zelensky has increasingly focused on the deployment of drones in the war, which has extended over 33 months since Russia invaded in February 2022.
In October, the president said Ukraine had already contracted to produce 1.5 million drones this year and was capable of ramping up production to four million annually.
Drone production was virtually non-existent in Ukraine before Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
Ukraine’s Zelensky boosts funding for drone deployment
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Ukraine’s Zelensky boosts funding for drone deployment
- Zelensky has increasingly focused on the deployment of drones in the war, which has extended over 33 months since Russia invaded in February 2022
Thailand frees 18 Cambodian soldiers as ceasefire holds
- The Southeast Asian neighbors agreed on a ceasefire that took effect on Saturday, halting 20 days of fighting that killed at least 101 people and displaced more than half a million
BANGKOK/PHNOM PENH: Thailand on Wednesday released 18 Cambodian soldiers it had detained since July under the renewed ceasefire the two countries agreed on the weekend to end a border conflict, Cambodian and Thai authorities said.
The Southeast Asian neighbors agreed on a ceasefire that took effect at noon (0500 GMT) on Saturday, halting 20 days of fighting that killed at least 101 people and displaced more than half a million on both sides, and included fighter-jet sorties, exchanges of rocket fire and artillery barrages.
The soldiers were due to be returned on Tuesday, but Thailand over alleged breaches of the ceasefire deal, which Cambodia denied.
Cambodian Defense Ministry spokesperson Maly Socheata said the soldiers were handed over at a border checkpoint at 10 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Wednesday after 155 days in Thai custody.
Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said the soldiers had been treated “in
The border clashes reignited early this month, following the breakdown in a
ceasefire deal
that US President
Donald Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim helped broker to halt a previous round of conflict in July.
