Canada and Ukraine signed a new round of drone agreements in Calgary on Thursday, when Prime Minister Mark Carney and President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a broader 100-year strategic partnership. Zelensky called the drone piece unprecedented for the region, writing on X Friday morning that “the first Drone Deal with a country in the Americas will be with Canada.”
Zelensky said he and Carney examined some of the drones slated for early use under the new pact during their time in Alberta, and Canada is now prepared to order at scale, with 30% of that output bound for Ukraine.
That production runs through a new national marketplace, the Defence Drone Initiative Marketplace, modeled on Ukraine’s own Brave1 platform. Ottawa has already put $50 million behind initial contracts, aiming to grow the military’s drone fleet tenfold, and went from launching the initiative to signing its first contract in just 50 days.
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Read: Ukraine and Canada Begin Preparing Drone Deal
General Dynamics Mission Systems Canada (NYSE: GD), the Ottawa-based arm of the US defense company, is pairing with Ukrainian firm Green Tech Harvest to develop drone technology — a second joint venture building on the Airlogix-Sentinel partnership set up in May.
Read: Canada and Ukraine Sign Drone Co-Production Deal, Creating Airlogix-Sentinel Joint Venture
Zelensky also flagged that Ukraine still needs ways to intercept jet-powered Shahed drones, which fly far faster than the propeller-driven versions Ukraine has grown practiced at shooting down, and said Kyiv would share whatever it develops with partners.
Canada’s total commitments to Ukraine now exceed $26 billion since 2022.
