EU chief announces 'drone deal' with Ukraine

KYIV: EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday (Jul 15) announced a "drone deal" with Ukraine to boost joint production of the key battlefield technology."This deal will bring together Ukrainian ingenuity and Europe's industrial scale," von der Leyen said in Kyiv, after receiving an award from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.Ukraine has already signed similar deals with some individual EU countries and Gulf nations looking to tap into the expertise Kyiv has developed during more than four years of war with Russia.The deals are adapted to each country, but typically involve Kyiv providing blueprints for drone technology in exchange for royalties, investments and other military hardware. "In Europe, we already have huge technological and industrial capacity that can be deployed, and we have