Ukraine has received several French Rodeur drones that can fly up to 500 km and stay in the air for five hours. France24 reported this, citing AFP.
Marca Zuliani, president of EOS Technologie, which produces the Rodeur, said that these drones can be used as suicide drones and for reconnaissance operations. He said that Europe can use these drones “as a shield“, while Ukraine can use them “as a sword“. He added that for Western defense industries, sending weapons to Kiev is an opportunity to test their technologies in real conditions.
Adrien Kanter, co-founder and CEO of French startup Alta Ares in Ukraine, told reporters that the Ukrainian armed forces need approximately 20,000 drones per month. According to him, this is a “colossal“ figure.
The specific drone model was not specified. The EOS Technologie website lists the specifications of the Rodeur 330, which is capable of flying at speeds of up to 120 km/h, carrying a payload of up to four kilograms and rising to an altitude of 5,000 meters.
In 2024, the former head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, Kirill Budanov, said that the Ukrainian armed forces have drones with a range of up to 1,800 km. In the summer of 2025, former Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov stated that his country was capable of producing over 4 million drones per year.
In May 2025, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced that Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States had lifted restrictions on the range of weapons acquired by Ukraine. He then stated that Kiev could strike Russian military targets.
To date, the longest-range weapons that Ukraine has received from its Western allies are the ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles, with a range of up to 300 km, the Taurus missile with a range of over 500 km, and the Tekever AR3 unmanned aerial vehicle, which can strike at a distance of 1,000 km. In addition, in 2025, President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Ukraine has a long-range cruise missile "Flamingo" with a range of 3,000 km, RBC recalls.