Why is army not given Mavics?

Author: Yurii Butusov

The stream is dedicated to an operational topic that has become a scandal today. This is the supply of tactical intelligence assets to the army, namely the main tactical intelligence drones, the main reconnaissance and attack drones of the army - Mavic and Autel drones - Chinese commercial quadcopters, which are the most affordable, balanced for intelligence, and easy to operate.

The entire frontline knows them, I think every person in the country knows them. I think that no other means has destroyed and adjusted as many Mavic and Autel drones in this war. And, of course, these drones are in high demand because Mavic and Autel not only provide reconnaissance, but if necessary, they can drop grenades on the enemy and very effectively. We have Mavic ace pilots who have more than 500, even 600 accurate drops at its own charge, which led to the elimination or serious injury of Russian soldiers. I even have a video on my channel about one of these fighters. In other words, the Mavic is absolutely irreplaceable, and there is a saying that "there are never too many Mavics". They are always in short supply. Even if they are available for reconnaissance, the costs of bombing lead to significant losses of equipment, and yet people go for it. But anyone can bomb with a Mavic. The training of fighters, almost most people can learn to fly it, to drop grenades, and of course, it is very effective when you can even put a person with some basic skills at the console and he will help you repel a Russian attack. Of course, it is much safer and more effective to repel an attack from the Mavic remote control than to sit in a trench and wait for the enemy to crawl up to you to throw a grenade or to make a direct shot at close range. That's why Mavics and Autels are in constant demand. Everyone is always asking for them and wanting them.

Veteran, wounded serviceman of the Armed Forces Yurii Hudymenko wrote the post.

From August 16 to September 16, the Armed Forces received 50 Mavic-3T drones from the Ministry of Defense. "3T" is a night drone with a thermal imaging camera. Not 50 thousand, not 5000, not 500, but 50 fucking Mavic-3Ts for the entire army. Is that half a Mavic per brigade? Or a quarter of a Mavic? Given that the supply of such drones used to be measured in thousands, and now it's 50? Who will be responsible for this?"

I looked into this topic and found many, many interesting facts. First of all, why did the Defense Procurement Agency not buy Mavics, as Hudymenko wrote in his post, not buy Mavics. It turned out, according to our sources in the Ministry of Defense, that it was because the contracts expired in August and, as it turns out, the Ukrainian government did not allocate money to the Ministry of Defense to buy the main drone of the Ukrainian army, the most popular one, for which there is the greatest demand. Why did this happen? Because, of course, you and I understand how a defense procurement agency can buy drones if the government does not allocate funds for the purchase of drones. You might think that the money is actually there, but someone just didn't plan something and someone didn't implement something. In fact, the money that was allocated was used in full.  What was found out? Well, our sources in the government, both in the Ministry of Defense and in the leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, report that for this year, as you know, the money for the purchase of drones was redirected, they took all the military personal income tax that the military paid to local budgets, in the amount of more than 40 billion hryvnias, and it was transferred centrally to the government, so that local budgets would no longer buy drones, as they had been doing for 2022-2023 years, but that the government would do it. What happened? According to the government's program, 24 billion hryvnias out of these 40 were supposed to be distributed by the Ministry of Digitalization, and 18 billion, a little more than 40, were transferred to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine for the purchase of drones and ammunition for drones. But this is an interesting detail. The Ministry of Digitalization, the government, forbade the purchase of Mavic and Autel, and the Ministry of Defense had to buy Mavic and Autel exclusively for the army. What did this lead to? The Ministry of Defense identified the need. The need for Mavic and Autel drones was calculated below any minimum values. If you count the number of battalions and brigades that need Mavic and Autel, then for the first 8 months of 2024, if you count the number that was actually bought and supplied to the troops and the number that is needed, it turns out that of what was bought, we can say that approximately 3 Mavic were bought for each battalion and brigade per month. If you calculate per month, then for each unit, that is, for each battalion, each brigade, everyone who uses Mavic, Autel, this is the minimum value, maybe even less. Is this a lot or a little? Well, in fact, to give you an idea, sometimes Mavics per day, an ordinary battalion can lose 3 or even 5 Mavics per day, because there can be intense fighting. The enemy shoots down these drones, they fall, electronic warfare works, enemy electronic warfare works, Ukraine's own electronic warfare works, they shoot down their own drones en masse, there, a large number, so you understand. Sometimes it's up to 50% of the losses, these are losses from our own. So, of course, this figure is negligible, it means practically nothing. But it turned out that even with such a minimal purchase, it was purchased for 8 months. That's why, of course, this figure is insignificant, it means practically nothing. And in fact, all this time, volunteers and military personnel have been buying the bulk of Mavic and Autel out of their own pockets. The state actually covers maybe 5% of the needs there. Well, in some units, maybe 10, no more. People buy everything else themselves. A very large number of military units do not receive state-owned Autels and Mavics at all. In principle. They buy everything themselves. So it turned out that even these scanty supplies of 3 Mavics per month per battalion, per brigade, all this is stretched only until August. And then zero. Nothing at all. Why? Because it turned out that out of the 18 billion hryvnias that were identified in the draft budget as spending on drones for the army, the Ministry of Defense actually received 12 billion. And the government simply did not provide 6 billion. Today, only (September 16), the government said that we would provide funds when the Facebook scandal arose. Before that, there was no money in the account. Therefore, there is no reason to blame the Defense Procurement Agency of the Ministry of Defense, because they cannot buy the first thing that is not identified as necessary, and the second thing for which no money has been allocated. Because the agency is only an executive structure. It cannot take money from the state budget in the required amount and spend it wherever it deems necessary. Therefore, we have a situation where the government finds money. The government of Denys Shmyhal. How does it find money? There is a project to renovate a children's hospital in Kryvyi Rih, President Zelenskyy's hometown. Money is being found for the project of the national memorial cemetery - UAH 1.8 billion. There is UAH 1.5 billion for a hospital in Kryvyi Rih. There is UAH 2 billion to finance unnecessary propaganda at the telethon. In other words, the telethon is financed from the state budget, with UAH 2 billion allocated for it. The state-owned TV channel Rada, which is simply a propaganda channel, a propaganda work about the servants of the people, receives UAH 78 million. I do not want to say, friends, that we do not need a national memorial cemetery. We need it. We don't need to repair the hospital in Kryvyi Rih - we need it. I just want to say that while money is allocated to construction companies for these projects, the government takes this money from the budget of the Ministry of Defense. And in this way, it is taken away from the living defenders of Ukraine who are dying because the state completely ignores the need for the supply of drones, which are provided for in the budget, approved by the General Staff, approved by the Ministry of Defense. The government has not allocated money for this. And the money is only now coming. So, dear friends, they will only be looking for them now, because for a month now, no Mavic has been supplied, zero at all. And they will not be supplied for a long time. And then they will be purchased, and this will hardly cover most of the needs. Unfortunately, it won't. But this is just completely absurd. I understand when the main defense spending is funded, what is budgeted, and then the government finds additional money for other important projects. But when money is taken away from the Ministry of Defense for Mavic-Autels, for drones, and then redistributed to some other items, it's completely absurd. This is utter irresponsibility. Who is responsible for this? Of course, these issues should have been raised by Defense Minister Rustem Umierov in the first place. But we know that this is a man who is absolutely terrified, who is afraid of everyone, who is only worried about his chair. And he, of course, will never raise his voice, raise a question, or demand anything from anyone. Neither at the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief nor in the government. That's Mr. Cellophane. Good, convenient, silent, he signs everything, does not conflict with anyone, does not argue with anyone. He is either in or he is not. In principle, the secretary could fulfill Umierov's duties. She can go instead of him and keep silent as well. First and foremost, of course, we have the Minister of Defense, who simply does not fulfill his duties, he does not defend the interests of the army. He does not defend the programs that are included in the budget, does not demand their implementation. He votes for other government decisions, for the allocation of funds for other projects. It's just absurd. For the telethon where he speaks. Minister Umierov votes for the telethon to be funded. But the fact that he was given 6 billion for drones and left the army without Mavic is somehow without him. Civil society should decide on this, but he is standing there, not quarreling with anyone. 

Secondly, we understand the absolute irresponsibility of the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. In other words, we have the meeting of Headquarters of the evening videos. There are always some spells that we need drones, drones. And then it turns out that the money that was supposed to provide to drones is not even controlled, because it was taken for other projects. It's a complete absurdity. I want to say, friends, that we have a big problem now because last year's drone contracts expire in November, early November. And in November and December, we have no contracts for the supply of drones at all. We are in a critical situation because even the meager number of drones that the army should have received, that the defense forces should have received, even that will now fall very low because the government cannot find the funds to finance the purchase of drones. And there will be a big failure between now and November and December. There will be no failure in the telethon. All those talking heads who are shown there, whom no one watches, will be fine with their salaries. Hundreds of millions will be sent there. Because they will tell you that Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the wisest, the greatest, held a meeting and is very concerned and is taking all the measures. That's where the PR money goes. Money is not going to drones. And drones have to be bought again by soldiers, volunteers, and fundraisers. Everyone is running around. As if people and society need the war much more than the Servant of the People party and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. I just don't understand why all these people are sitting there at the headquarters. It's just completely irresponsible.

Therefore, it will be necessary to raise the issue of drones. The government must immediately find the funds. Not only to return 6 billion to the Ministry of Defense right now, so that all these 6 billion can be spent on drone purchases. But it is very important that the government finds additional funds, we need to find several billion more, of course, to cover the needs for November and December for different types of drones. We also need modern FPVs.

Serhii Sternenko raised a very important topic. These are the problems with the Fenix FPV drones purchased by the state, which have questions. I want to say that there are questions about other types of drones that the state contracts for a year, because when the contract is already fulfilled during the year, these drones become outdated very often. The equipment needs to be changed, their reliability needs to be checked. This is all poorly controlled. That's why we have big problems: the promise of a million drones is not followed up on. There is complete irresponsibility. There are a lot of promises that are not confirmed by implementation. And it appears like this on Facebook. If it hadn't been posted on Facebook, there would have been no reaction. There is correspondence there, of course, but where is the result?

We are seriously weakening ourselves by not having drones. I want to say that due to the advantage of Mavic and Autel drones in certain parts of the frontline, the enemy manages to break through our defense. For example, in the Vuhledar area, the situation is critical. The enemy hangs merry-go-rounds with these drones with drops, and they simply destroy very important positions. Because they are constantly above us, and we cannot respond in the same way. So, you know, I appealed to the law enforcement agencies, to the parliament, but we understand that this is all one group of servants of the people who cover for each other, and the only thing that affects them is some issues that resonate in civil society, in social networks, and questions from our Western partners who give money to finance our budget and hope that the Ukrainian government will adequately distribute these funds. Well, it turns out that the priorities of the telethon for the Zelenskyy and Shmyhal governments are much more important than the lives of Ukrainian soldiers, than weapons, than drones, which are needed in the war. I hope that we will create a decent resonance on this topic, and it will not be possible to silence it. 

Answers to questions

Why aren't mavics bought? Because they cannot be stolen. Everyone in Ukraine knows the price of a Mavic, plus or minus the cost, so how can you make 200-300% on it? It's better to say that they have developed a new one and sell it like two pickups.

Well, friends, what can I say, there is a lot of truth in this, because the margin on Mavic is minimal. In fact, there are companies that specialize in this, and if there was an adequate procurement system, they would give us money. The Defense Ministry's procurement agency is normal, it buys Mavic at a normal price. But the amount that the General Staff has requested and the amount that the Ministry of Defense has received from the government to finance is just miserable. And they do not meet even the minimum needs. It is completely absurd.

Yes, and one more remark:

"China is not selling. There was information in August or September".

Well, I'm not going to go into details right now. In fact, the issue of supplying Mavic and Autel is a purely technical one. It can be resolved now and in the future. If the Defense Procurement Agency had received the necessary amount of money, received another 6 billion hryvnias and bought Mavic and Autel with it, believe me, all these contracts would have been fulfilled even after September. Yes, the price went up a little bit, but this is a fairly transparent story and it would have been a minor fluctuation. Friends, this is the situation. We will continue to cover the issue because we receive requests every day. The main problem is that we need Autels, we need Mavics. And, of course, we need to respond to this.

Why is Bezuhla silent?

Indeed, why is the Verkhovna Rada Defense Committee, which directly comments on everything, silent here? Why is that? For some reason, when it comes to saying that all generals are bad and that everything bad in the war is caused by some generals, Ms. Bezuhla and the Defense Committee are in the forefront. As soon as the question comes to the irresponsibility and criminal inaction of President Zelenskyy, the head of the Office Yermak, the Shmyhal government, and Defense Minister Umierov, Ms. Bezuhla's desire to criticize them disappears. She does not notice any spots in them. They are flawless, she likes them very much. True, there are no Mavics in the army. But Ms. Bezuhla, of course, will not notice this, and thus her superiors, who direct her activities, will not be affected. But then we will read again that someone is to blame. Everyone is to blame, except Zelenskyy, except the servants of the people. They do everything well, yes, they steal a little money, spend it in a misguided way, take money from the Ministry of Defense for a telethon, but otherwise, they like everything. They pay the wages to Ms. Bezuhla herself and to support her activities. So, friends, what can I say? The irresponsibility of our government is shocking. And, unfortunately, we have no other levers of influence on our government during the war except for scandals, public pressure, public opinion, and media coverage. We will be engaged in publicity and will influence the necessary decisions on the defense of the state to be made, and the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief to still fulfill his duties sometimes. 

Friends, thank you very much for the broadcast. Thank you for supporting Butusov Plus. It is thanks to your work that we are able to go on air. Thank you for being with us. And Glory to Ukraine!