The People’s Drone: Ukraine Citizens Raise Production Money On Facebook
This post is also available in: 
עברית (Hebrew)
The civil war in Ukraine start at the start of 2014 following the rise of pro-western and nationalist Ukrainian circles to power, who impeached Viktor Yanukovych after he refused to sign a cooperation agreement with the European Union. The rise of these pro-westerners has caused part of the population in south-east Ukraine to raise louder calls to seperate form Ukraine and either join Russia or establish an independent states. These seperatists were encouraged by Russia and were awarded with weapons and volunteers to help in the fight.
Ukraine is not known for being a very rich country, and so as part of the fight with the seperatists, Ukrainian volunteers have begun looking for undustrial partners to help them build an unmanned aerial vehicle for the country’s security forces. A group of activists known as Army SOS has published on Facebook a picture of the Black Square drone and is now beginning an operation to rais funds in order to develop two such models. They are also looking for a company that will offer to manufacture it.
“Now we are searching for a strategic partner who would take over the organisation of serial production of our devices, and supply them to the troops,” a Facebook post from activist Yuri Kasyanov explains. “To date, we have developed two basic models of unmanned vehicles that meet the requirements of modern warfare.”
The Army SOS group is working together with Ukraine’s security forces, the national guard and a group of volunteers in order to develop the system. They claim the Black Square can operate at high speeds and altitude. Furthermore, the vehicle will be installed with daytime and nighttime cameras and it will be operational at any weather. Beyond that, the reconnaissance capabilities of the drone, based on cheap technology, “make it very promising for a launch in[to] general production”.
This is just one example of efforts which include volunteers whose goal is to supply military hardware to the Ukrainian security forces. That way they could aid the armed forces cope with the severe lack of resources. It’s well-known that Ukraine has negotiated to purchase UAVs made in Israel, but following pressure from Russia, Israel has ceased all contact with Ukraine.
