‘Bureaucracy’ Blocks Delivery of Thousands of Lithuanian Drones to Ukraine

The Lithuanian LRT news service reported on Saturday that thousands of drones procured by the Vilnius government from local manufacturers for delivery to Ukraine by the end of 2024 remain in storage because of bureaucratic delays. The suppliers of the equipment say that these unacceptable delays are impacting Ukraine’s ability to defend itself effectively.

In August, five Lithuanian drone manufacturers successfully conducted tests in Ukraine after which almost 5,000 drones worth €5 million ($5.1 million) were purchased for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. At the same time the Lithuanian army bought 2,300 combat drones worth €3 million ($3.06 million).

One of the manufacturing companies, RSI Europe, told LRT that its drones were delivered several months ago:

“We delivered some of the drones in October, some in November, but we still have no information that the drones have been delivered to Ukraine,” Tomas Milashauskas, the company head said. He said that the equipment needs to be delivered to Ukraine as soon as possible: “If the soldiers don’t have drones, Ukraine will suffer more significant losses than it should have.”

He added that RSI hadn’t yet even been called upon to train Ukrainians in the use of drones and said other companies have also confirmed that they have no information about when the drones they have supplied will be transported to Ukraine.

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The former Lithuanian Minister of National Defense Laurinas Kasciunas says bureaucracy is to blame for everything, claiming that currently a product has to complete a six-step process before it can be dispatched to its final destination.

“The bureaucracy is like this: there are warehouses, the Defense Resources Agency must formally transfer it to the army, the government must make a decision on the transfer to Ukraine, then it needs to be transported to Ukraine... This means that you need to strain your will and take every step as quickly as possible,” Kasciunas said.

He said that while the steps are necessary and logical, if there is a delay in any of them, everything gets stuck.

Gedrimas Eglinskas, the chairman of Lithuania’s parliamentary committee on national security and defense sympathizes with the manufacturers’ complaints.

“When it comes to drones, which are new technologies, manufactured to the latest standards, they should be in the hands of users – the Ukrainian military – as soon as possible,” he said, before adding that this saga shows that there is a need to review the entire approval system.

A spokesperson for Lithuania’s Ministry of Defense said that the drones will be delivered to Ukraine in the near future and said the approvals chain is about to be shortened by a government resolution to be adopted this week.

“It provides that if state property is purchased for the needs of another state at the expense of funds allocated by the government, the government should not re-discuss this issue… From now on, we will begin to transfer property to Ukraine in accordance with these changed procedures,” the ministry spokesperson said.