President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Ukraine was making good progress in manufacturing and employing drones and had used more of them last month in combat than Russia.

Speaking in his nightly video address, Zelenskyy thanked all Ukrainian servicemen for their efforts in combat “in particular, all those soldiers and commanders who make good use of our possibilities with drones.

“Our Ukrainian defense forces are already leading the way in this regard, and in July our forces used more drones than did the occupiers,” he said.

“This must become a sustainable trend at the front - across all types of drones that are in our units.”

He said drones, including long-range versions, “are already affecting the war in strategic terms.”

Ukraine is boosting its production capacity with help from its Western partners and the country’s manufacturers will exceed throughout 2024 contractual plans to produce one million drones, the president said.

Zelenskyy and other officials have long stressed the need for increased drone production and Ukrainian forces have increased long-range attacks on targets inside Russia, including oil refineries and other infrastructure.