Ukraine opens 10 drone export hubs across Europe as first German-built Ukrainian drone rolls off the line

Four years ago, Ukraine was begging Western allies for basic weapons deliveries. Now Zelenskyy is announcing drone production lines on German soil and 10 weapons export offices spanning the Baltics to Northern Europe. The speed of this reversal is hard to overstate.

Here is what you need to know:

• The development: Ukraine will open 10 weapons export centers across Europe in 2026, with its first German-produced drone expected within days, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on February 8 during a visit to Kyiv’s Aviation Institute.
• The “So what?”: 15 EU member states want to buy Ukrainian weapons through the bloc’s €150 billion SAFE defense fund. Ukraine has gone from arms recipient to arms exporter in under three years.
• The source: Euromaidan Press reported the details, citing Zelenskyy’s official statements and confirmed production partnerships.

Quantum Systems and Frontline Robotics launch German drone production

The German production line belongs to Quantum Frontline Industries (QFI), a joint venture between Germany’s Quantum Systems and Ukrainian firm Frontline Robotics. QFI plans to produce over 10,000 drones per year, including frontline-proven Linza bombers and Zoom reconnaissance drones, on a fully automated line. All units go directly to Ukraine’s armed forces.

“Ukrainians have fundamentally changed the rules of drone warfare. Now, together, we are changing the rules of defense-industrial production,” said Sven Kruck, Co-CEO of Quantum Systems.

DroneXL readers will recognize Quantum Systems. The Peter Thiel-backed company landed a $246 million German Army contract in December for 520 Falke surveillance systems, after its Vector drones logged thousands of combat hours in Ukraine. The company has been supplying reconnaissance drones to Ukraine since 2022, initially with just 40 Vectors that proved effective during the Siverskyi Donets battle. Kruck is now co-running QFI on the production side.

“In mid-February, we will see the production of our drones in Germany. I will receive the first drone,” Zelenskyy said. “In Britain, production lines are already running. These are all our Ukrainian technologies.”

Poland’s Patriot missile problem explains Europe’s sudden interest

The demand for Ukrainian drone technology is not charity. It is a direct response to an unsustainable cost equation that European defense ministers can no longer ignore.

When Poland scrambled F-35s and fired Patriot missiles to intercept Russian Gerbera drones worth under $10,000 each last September, the math was obvious. You cannot defend a continent by spending $1 million to destroy a $10,000 drone. NATO officials have publicly admitted this approach is “absolutely not sustainable.”

Ukraine now intercepts around 80% of nightly Russian drone attacks, increasingly using low-cost interceptor drones rather than expensive missiles. That is the technology Europe lacks and now wants to buy.

The EU’s planned Drone Wall, a continent-wide counter-drone network first fast-tracked after Russian drone incursions into NATO airspace and later expanded to 360-degree coverage, will draw heavily on Ukrainian battlefield experience. Zelenskyy was blunt about the dependency: Europe’s future security systems “will be based mostly on Ukrainian technologies and Ukrainian specialists.”

Czech reverse-engineering, French automakers, and Lithuanian sea drones

The German production line is not the only development. According to RBC-Ukraine, Germany is also set to manufacture TYTAN interceptor drones, which are already deployed in combat. A Czech company working with volunteers has reverse-engineered captured Russian “Knyaz Vandal” fiber-optic FPV drones and is now supplying improved versions to Ukraine. French automaker Renault, together with defense firm Turgis Gaillard, will produce long-range drones for Ukraine’s military.

Lithuania is exploring production of Ukrainian Magura sea drones under a “1+1” scheme: one for itself, one for Ukraine. The Baltic state has been deploying Ukrainian drone detection technology and building its own drone training infrastructure for months.

Zelenskyy stressed that frontline supply remains the priority. Drones go first to brigades, then to national arsenals, and only third to controlled export.

The export ban cost Ukraine billions

The shift to exports comes after years of wartime restrictions that left Ukrainian factories idle. A 2025 industry report found Ukrainian defense companies operating at just 55% capacity. They could nearly double output without new investment, while European defense ministers were scrambling to find exactly the production capacity they were sitting on.

We covered the push for export permissions back in October 2024, when the National Association of Ukrainian Defense Industries claimed allowing military exports could bring in up to $2 billion in new tax revenues over 18 months. The government was cautious then. That caution has now given way to economic and strategic reality.

Serhii Sternenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister, called the move overdue. “In 2025, the Russians earned about $15 billion from arms exports and invested it in new weapons. It was a big mistake to keep the export ban all this time,” he told UAWire.

DroneXL’s Take

We’ve been tracking Ukraine’s transformation from drone buyer to drone exporter for over two years now. When we reported on the Netherlands’ €200 million joint production deal in October 2025, the trajectory was clear. When the EU pledged €7 billion the same month, it was confirmed. Today’s announcement is the operational follow-through.

The numbers tell the story. Ukraine deploys 9,000 drones daily in actual combat. Its manufacturers have iterated through generations of designs under real battlefield feedback loops that no Western defense contractor can replicate. The U.S. Marines just tested fiber-optic FPV drones at Camp Pendleton last week because Ukrainian innovation made it clear those systems work when electronic warfare shuts everything else down.

Here’s what I think happens next. By mid-2026, at least three more NATO countries will announce co-production agreements with Ukrainian drone manufacturers. The 10 export hubs aren’t just sales offices. They’re beachheads for a Ukrainian defense-industrial network that will be embedded across Europe within 18 months. The countries that move first get the best technology transfer deals. The ones that wait will pay premium prices for systems their neighbors helped develop.

Russia earned $15 billion from arms exports while Ukraine’s factories sat at 55% capacity. That’s a strategic mistake Kyiv won’t repeat. The export ban is over. The drone economy is open for business.

Editorial Note: AI tools were used to assist with research and archive retrieval for this article. All reporting, analysis, and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.