Dutch support worth billions for drones appears to be of decisive importance on the front in Ukraine

Dutch military support to Ukraine plays a decisive role in the war against Russia, according to conversations NRC with Ukrainian and Dutch key figures. For example, according to Kyiv, a third of all Russian dead and wounded on the battlefield (a total of about 35,000 per month) are killed or disabled by Ukrainian drone troops equipped by the Netherlands.

“The Dutch-Ukrainian cooperation in the field of drones has changed the course of the war,” said Oleksi Antonyuk, responsible for international cooperation at the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. Colonel Simon Wouda, who coordinated military aid to Ukraine in the Netherlands, endorses that reading: “I don’t think that is an exaggeration.”

In the spring of 2025, then Minister of Defense Ruben Brekelmans (VVD) decided to invest 500 million euros in a Ukrainian plan for large-scale production and deployment of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The Dutch contribution to this has now increased Drone Line Initiative has grown to almost 900 million euros and almost a million drones have been produced under this program. The Netherlands will cover the full costs.

The Drone Line had to compensate for the Russian predominance of manpower and equipment through the massive deployment of UAVs, creating a ‘kill zone‘ of about fifteen kilometers wide would be created within which everything and everyone would be immediately seen and blown up. “In the new strategy, the drones are no longer tools, but the core of the doctrine,” says Antonyuk.

Russian advance almost to a standstill

Manning the drone line is the most important task of the Armed Forces for Unmanned Systems (Syly Bezpilotnych System), under the command of Robert Brovdi – codenamed ‘Magyar’, due to his ethnic Hungarian background. According to Brovdi, his troops are responsible for “one in three” Russians killed or injured at the front.

The Ukrainians mainly use this First Person View (FPV) drones, small quadcopters with a camera and a payload, which are controlled by a soldier wearing video glasses. “The FPV drones are the most important weapon in this war,” Brovdi says when asked. “And every FPV drone we use is financed by the Dutch people.”

Other Ukrainian units at the front also use UAVs, but Commander Brovdi’s drone troops have the most impact, according to Kyiv. “They are the best units,” says defense official Oleksi Antonyuk. “And thanks to Dutch support, they have so many drones that they can fully concentrate on their task.”

According to Ukrainian estimates, drone strikes are now responsible for 80 percent of all Russian casualties at the front – dead and wounded. Thanks to the massive use of UAVs, the Russian advance in Ukraine has virtually come to a standstill this year and the Russians have even had to give up ground in some places.

Three billion euros from the Netherlands per year

According to military analysts, drones have fundamentally changed warfare. It is often forgotten what initiated this revolution, says Oleksi Antonyuk. “Everyone is talking about the kill zone these days, but that kill zone is the result of the Drone Line, and it came about thanks to the Netherlands.”

The Dutch government spends three billion euros every year on military aid to Ukraine; Last year, at the insistence of the House of Representatives, the Netherlands donated even 5.5 billion. The Netherlands now has a total of almost 12 billion provided military support. This makes the Netherlands the largest European donor after Germany and Norway.

Unlike Germany, for example, the Dutch government has not been afraid of arousing Moscow’s wrath from the start of the invasion. For example, the Rutte IV cabinet played an important role in initiating deliveries of advanced weapon systems (such as tanks, howitzers and Patriot anti-aircraft missiles) and The Hague built an international coalition to supply Kyiv with F-16s. The air force itself supplied a total of 24 F-16 fighter aircraft.

What is less known is that in 2023 the Netherlands was one of the initiators of an international coalition led by the Czech Republic to supply more than one million 155-millimeter artillery shells to Ukraine. The Netherlands covered a quarter of the costs for this, says Colonel Wouda. “I think more than half of our budget was spent on ammunition.”

Cruise missile from Hengelo

Companies in the Netherlands are now producing not only drones for the drone line, but also weapons for medium- and long-range attacks. The Hengelo-based defense company Destinus builds cruise missiles for the Ukrainian armed forces. “The Dutch-made Roeta is used very intensively for medium and long-range attacks,” says Oleksi Antonyuk. “You can use it to attack command posts and other important targets.”

Whether such weapons have also been used against targets on Russian territory is unknown. Unlike other countries, the Netherlands does not prohibit this. “We have never imposed geographical restrictions,” says Colonel Wouda. “As long as it concerned military objectives and that it was done in accordance with the Geneva Conventions,” which lay down the laws of war.

A spokesperson for Defense Minister Dilan Yesilgöz (VVD) said in a response that drones are “an important priority” in Dutch support to Ukraine. “The Ukrainian military uses these resources extremely effectively to repel Russian attacks. We also learn from the good cooperation with Ukraine and immediately apply these lessons within our own armed forces.”

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