A Ukrainian UAV manufacturer whose drone will fly and land on Red Square in Moscow during the May 9 parade will receive a UAH 20 million prize.
Source. This was announced by Volodymyr Yatsenko, co-founder of Monobank and manufacturer of the Dovbush T10 UAV, on the air of the Unified National Telethon.
"May 9 is a very good moment. Because, as I read, Putin is planning a parade on Red Square, and there will be a lot of military there. That is, it will be, as they say, 'legitimate military targets'. So I urge everyone involved in the production of UAVs – let's create a "holiday" for them. I am officially establishing a prize for the Ukrainian UAV manufacturer whose aircraft, with the help of the military, will fly and land on Red Square in Moscow on May 9," he said.
The prize is worth UAH 20 million, he said.
"I hope that this amount will be fairly divided between the manufacturer and military operators who successfully complete the task and will be used to improve the UAV. To avoid any misunderstandings, the wings should have a Ukrainian slogan, for example, "Glory to Ukraine", "Glory to Heroes", "Putin...", etc.", Yatsenko said.
"By the way, our (drone) Dovbush will fly out of the competition so that it doesn't look like a game of self-interest. That is, I will not pay a bonus to myself. I have opened a jar, and it already has 20 million hryvnias from me. If anyone who cares wants to join, I have made it bigger – up to 40 million hryvnias," said Volodymyr Yatsenko.
Anyone can join in and increase the amount – he posted the details with a link to the bank on Facebook.
He noted that this is a task that is quite feasible to accomplish, as they already made a "training flight" on March 28, when a small drone with Ukrainian slogans was found in New Moscow, 45 km from Red Square.
"But it hit a high-voltage line. We didn't make it 45 kilometers to Red Square. It was preparation for the parade. We were watching how they reacted, whether they saw us or not. And I can say that everything will be fine. So let's make them a "holiday" together," Yatsenko said.
In addition, the developer of Dovbush said that his team is currently working on creating a drone that can cover distances of 500 and 1000 km.
"Every city in Russia should feel that it is at war, that the war is close, every military facility can be hit by our drones. Then this war will end very quickly," he said.
Background. The day before, it was reported that the United States would send Ukraine experimental weapons to combat drones.