Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s former defense minister, has gone into the missile business with Pavlo Yelizarov, the founder of the Lasar’s Group drone unit. Their company, Mission Defense Partners, wants an all-weather missile that kills Russian Shahed drones for $20,000 to $25,000 apiece. Yelizarov laid out the plan in an interview with the Ukrainian tech outlet DOU, published Wednesday, November 11.
The company is built on the civilian drone factory that has supplied Lasar’s Group since 2022, and its founders are the same partnership that produced the jet interceptor Fedorov unveiled in October. Fedorov, who was removed as defense minister on July 15, said in September that Palantir CEO Alex Karp would be the first major investor in a company he was launching. Yelizarov told DOU the Palantir agreements are still waiting to be signed.
Yelizarov Says Ukraine Cannot Yet Build A 15-Kilometer Radar-Guided Missile
Short-range missiles are one of Ukraine’s most painful gaps, Yelizarov told DOU. Ukraine today cannot build a missile with a 15-kilometer (9.3-mile) range and a radar seeker. MDP’s answer is a cheap missile for Shaheds that works in fog, rain and wind.
Some English-language reports turned the 15-kilometer figure into a spec for an MDP product. In the interview it is the capability Yelizarov says Ukraine lacks, and he gives no range for the missile his company is developing. He does say which unit would fly it: “As soon as we solve this task, Lasar’s Group will be able to use them,” he said, in Interfax-Ukraine’s translation. Ukraine’s defense ministry is funding the same hunt: Brave1 grants for drone-launched air-to-air missiles, announced at the end of October, aim to cut the cost of killing jet Shaheds.
Yelizarov’s case for the anti-Shahed work rests on his time as deputy commander of Ukraine’s Air Force, a post he quit after Fedorov’s dismissal. He says Roman “Fish” Yashchenko, Lasar’s Group’s first pilot, was put in command in Poltava, where 25 Shaheds had been downed in the four months before he arrived. After that, the count was 135 in March, 196 in April and 167 in May. Those are Yelizarov’s figures, given in the interview.
The Jet Interceptor Downed Two Geran-5s Within Days
On October 12, Fedorov posted video of a new jet interceptor drone built with Yelizarov’s team and already in combat testing over Kyiv. Lasar’s Group crews used it to shoot down two Russian Geran-5 jet drones heading for the capital, a month after development began.
The Geran-5 is Russia’s turbojet Shahed derivative, which Ukraine’s military intelligence estimates can reach up to 373 mph (600 km/h). “Its speed lets it shoot down jet Shaheds before they reach the city,” Fedorov wrote on Telegram. He says the goal is full autonomy, with the interceptor finding and engaging Russian drones without an operator. DOU photographed an interceptor at the interview and captioned it as built by Fedorov and Yelizarov’s company.
Palantir Funding Waits On Agreements Yelizarov Hopes To Sign Soon
Fedorov met Palantir to discuss funding under an investment program for Ukrainian startups, Yelizarov says, and those agreements are not yet signed. MDP runs a separate investment arm for that money. It is looking at in-flight guidance correction for drones and at air defense technology.
That is a different arrangement from September’s. On September 1, Fedorov said Karp would be his new company’s first major investor, and CNBC reported the money was Karp’s own, not Palantir’s, with no amount disclosed. The interview does not say whether MDP is the company Fedorov announced in September. Yelizarov’s account now puts Palantir the company at the table, through a startup fund, with nothing signed.
MDP has three co-owners. Yelizarov holds about a third and Fedorov is another, and the third partner’s name is being withheld. Yelizarov says he went with Fedorov to Italy for two days, where Fedorov had taken an unpaid advisory role with the defense minister, and then to the United States for the talks.
The Factory Runs At 30% And Yelizarov Blames Export Rules
The civilian factory MDP is built on employs up to 1,000 people and runs at 30% of capacity, Yelizarov says, and he wants to export the other 70%. His fix for the export controls is a notification-only system for EU and NATO buyers: report the contract and quantity, then ship.
In summer 2022 Lasar’s Group could not find drones on the market that met its needs, so it set up a civilian company to build to its specs, and for three to four years it was that company’s only customer. Other units can now buy, after an interview to show they can use the hardware. DroneXL covered how that model turned Lasar’s Group into Ukraine’s “McDonald’s” of drone strikes in January.
Yelizarov also describes a “drone NATO” idea from Fedorov’s team: Ukrainian pilots flying interceptors remotely, from Ukraine, over Latvia, Lithuania or any partner with an agreement. If Russia sends 400 Shaheds at a Baltic state, the 20 to 40 pilots Ukraine might train for its military will not be enough. He says the generals, the defense ministry and European partners have all heard the proposal, and no one has decided on it.
DroneXL’s Take
Mission Defense Partners has the right price target. A $20,000 to $25,000 missile sits between the roughly $2,000 Sting interceptor drone and the Patriot rounds Fedorov was trying to trade drones for in Washington in August. The defense ministry’s Brave1 grants show Kyiv wants something in that slot too.
The factory is the bigger problem I see. Export control exists for a reason, and Yelizarov says so himself: Ukrainian technology should not end up with terrorists or drug traffickers. But a drone plant sitting 70% idle in a country short of hard currency is a policy choice, and a notification regime for NATO and EU buyers is a modest fix. My read is that the idle capacity is the money that would pay for the missile work, and Kyiv’s export rules are keeping it on the shelf.
Sources: DOU, Interfax-Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov on Telegram, CNBC, Militarnyi. Quotes translated from Ukrainian.
DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo. Read our editorial standards.
