Zelensky reveals negotiations for  a major drones deal with Washington

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has revealed a significant strategic shift in his country's military manufacturing market, announcing advanced negotiations and a race by several countries in the Middle East to conclude defense deals to buy Ukrainian drones and train their security personnel.

In  an interview with the American network "CBS" on Monday, June 1, Zelensky explained that this growing interest comes driven by the desire of those countries to protect their airspace and counter attacks by Iranian-made Shahed drones, which are the same suicide models that Russian forces are launching heavily over Ukrainian territory.

A Presentation for Washington and Integration with American Artificial Intelligence

Zelensky stressed that his country has called on the US administration to complete a major bilateral deal for the supply and testing of drones, revealing that Washington has shown practical interest in examining the entire arsenal of Ukrainian drones and testing their systems in the air, land and sea, despite the operational consensus.

He noted that the long-awaited agreement has not yet been concluded and is awaiting a "yes" word from President Donald Trump, who continues to downplay Ukraine's combat experience in drone warfare.

The Ukrainian president indicated that there is a real opportunity to bring about "tremendous" technological integration between the two sides, as American companies have highly advanced technologies in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), while Kyiv, on the other hand, has extensive field experience and proven applications on the battlefields that no one has, pointing out that his country is preparing a huge parallel agreement with the European bloc on drones, in addition to the deals already completed with international partners.

 Pentagon: Trump mobilizes to fund drone companies

  The Wall Street Journal reported that US President Donald Trump's administration is moving towards concluding huge financing and investment agreements with a group of emerging domestic drone companies, as part of a military strategy aimed at boosting manufacturing capabilities and reducing the high cost of US drones, which have become a key pillar of contemporary defense plans.

The move is the strongest signal from the Pentagon to support the sector, after decades in which Pentagon sales accounted for less than 2 percent of total commercial and government drone sales in the United States annually.

The current plan is in line with the Pentagon's Drone Dominance program, a $1.1 billion program that seeks to build an offensive arsenal of about 300,000 low-cost drones (with a target price of $5,000 per aircraft) by the end of 2027.

Grinding drone war hits deep into Russian energy facilities

On the ground, Ukrainian forces translated their technological superiority by launching a series of drone air strikes that targeted the energy artery deep inside Russia.

The Ukrainian General Staff announced that the Saratov oil refinery belonging to the "Rosneft" company in southwestern Russia, which resulted in a huge fire, and the strikes also hit the vital "Lazarevo" pumping station in the Kirov region, located more than 1,200 kilometers from the border, which is responsible for transporting Siberian oil to Belarus, in addition to targeting a fuel depot in the town of "Matveev Kurgan" in the Rostov region.

On the other hand, Moscow continued its air escalation, as Russian drone shelling of a truck stop in the Chernihiv region of northern Ukraine resulted  in the death of a truck driver and the power outage of 40,000 citizens.

The airstrikes also killed a civilian and wounded 9 others in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and a fire broke out at an oil refinery in the western region of the country, while pro-Russian officials in Kherson announced that a child was killed and 11 civilians were injured when a Ukrainian drone fell on an apartment building in the city of Henichesk.

Coinciding with this escalation, Kyiv received a new German short-range interceptor missile launch system to bolster its air defenses.