With little prospect of Ukraine joining NATO, the country’s Western allies have bought into an alternate strategy for deterring Russia now and in the future: invest billions in Ukraine’s growing and highly regarded weapons industry so that it can better defend itself from Moscow’s aggression — and eventually share cutting-edge drones, missiles and other military technology with Europe and the U.S.

One recent advance in Ukraine’s homegrown arsenal is a quadcopter drone that can evade Russian jamming devices, fly more than 20 kilometers (12 miles) and drop six kilograms (13 pounds) of guided explosives onto tanks and other high-value targets.

Russian soldiers call it “baba yaga” after a witch in Slavic folktales that kidnaps and eats children; its Ukrainian developer calls it the R-34 and said it strikes as precisely as a sniper rifle.

Europeans have been taking the threat from Russia more seriously since the second Trump administration began signaling that NATO members shouldn’t be overly reliant on the U.S. to defend them.

Anxieties across Europe were heightened last week after Russian drones launched from Belarus invaded Polish and Romanian airspace before being shot down.

For its part, Ukraine is actively seeking investment so that it can triple its weapons production, become less reliant on Western partners to fight its war against Russia – and hopefully deter future conflicts.

Nearly 60% of weapons supplies for Ukraine's army are domestically produced, around 35 times higher compared to the start of the full-scale invasion, Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal said in July.

Plans are underway to expand the sector further, with some sophisticated weaponry, including U.S.- made Patriot defense systems, still sought after from allies.

Ukraine's military spending — about $64 billion in 2024— is just 43% of Russia's that same year.

U.S. Envoy Keith Kellogg said on Saturday Ukraine has become a “world leader” in defense technology and that the U.S. was “well behind” Kyiv with respect to drone development.

In addition to any private investment, and in lieu of NATO membership, security guarantees for Ukraine will likely center on European government investments in its army – essentially paying Kyiv to build its own weapons and plugging in production gaps with mutually beneficial joint ventures.

For both sides, the war has necessitated fast cycles of innovation as a matter of survival. How quickly a weapon can be developed, shipped to an army unit and improved upon is a matter of life and death.

Like most defense companies in Ukraine, FRDM, the maker of the R-34, communicates with soldiers at all hours of the day and quickly incorporates feedback. Its founder, Vadym Yunyk, is driven by the motto: Robots should die in the front lines, not people.

"There are no drones we know that can stand against EW machines and fly that far right now at this moment. That's why this is unique,” said one of the drone engineers of FRDM Group company, who didn't give his name due to security reasons.

That underscores one of Ukraine's disadvantages in this war — it's lack of manpower, which has been a key driver of innovation for Ukrainian defense companies.

Ukraine's small first-person view, or FPV, drones, are responsible for nearly 70% of Russian losses in manpower and weaponry within 15 kilometers of the front line, according to Ukrainian officials.

At the other end of the spectrum are its deep strike drones, which can reach over 1,000 kilometers to hit targets deep inside Russian territory.

FRDM's quadcopter bomber lies somewhere in the middle. The latest version of the weapon was modified from an earlier model to fly three times further and carry more guided bombs.

Drones aren’t the only area where Ukrainian defense companies are leveraging technology to offset Russia’s much bigger and better-equipped army.

UKR Armo Tech’s armored personnel carrier, known as the Gurza-1, comes with sophisticated modifications designed to absorb the impact of drone hits, informed by the urgent needs of Ukrainian infantrymen, CEO Hennadii Khirhii said.

The Gurza-2, a more agile vehicle that can carry more men, will soon go into production.

For now, Ukraine is set to receive 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) from a collection of countries, including Denmark, Sweden, Canada, Norway and Iceland, to produce artillery, strike drones, missiles and anti-tank systems.

Ukraine is also hoping for more joint ventures, which would involve Western companies establishing a foothold in Ukraine and gaining first-hand exposure to fast-paced battlefield developments, said Arsen Zhumadilov, Head of the Minister Of Defense's Procurement Agency.

"We believe that our best guarantee is not relying on somebody's will to protect us, but rather our ability to protect ourselves,” he said.

AP video shot by Vasilisa Stepanenko