Ukraine says it will produce two million drones this year and at least four million next year, while allies open joint ventures.
Russia has captured Vuhledar on the Donetsk-Zaporizhia border this week after battling for the town for 18 months.
Vuhledar sits on elevated ground near a railway line that brings in supplies from Russian-occupied Crimea. Its occupation deprives Ukrainian forces of a way to interrupt Russian supply lines.
It also gives Russia control of the adjacent H-15 highway, which may help it to “eliminate the wide Ukrainian salient in western Donetsk Oblast,” said the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.
Ukraine pushed Russian positions back in a crescent-shaped area by as much as 7.5km (5 miles) during a counteroffensive last year. That gain may now be imperilled. Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskii ordered defences strengthened in Donetsk after the loss of Vuhledar.