AH Andrii Hrytseniuk On Eye On A.I.

“If you need to waste $1 million to hit one Shahed that cost $50,000, this is in favor of the enemy. … Interceptors that cost a few thousands effectively destroy Shaheds that cost 50,000. And this is the economics of the war in favor of Ukraine.”

Eye On A.I. · October 2026

“If you need to waste $1 million to hit one Shahed that cost $50,000, this is in favor of the enemy. … Interceptors that cost a few thousands effectively destroy Shaheds that cost 50,000. And this is the economics of the war in favor of Ukraine.” — Andrii Hrytseniuk, Eye On A.I.

The host asks how Ukraine's spending compares with what a major military power would have spent. Hrytseniuk says cost per kill is why interceptor drones appeared, and that more than 150 Ukrainian companies now make them.

Eye On A.I. · 2026-10-02 Listen to the episode → More from Andrii Hrytseniuk →

Transcript

Eye On A.I. Around 33:13 into the episode
Andrii Hrytseniuk

There are different models of cooperation.

Craig S. Smith

How much have you spent on hardware? Do you have a sense nationally since 2022, as opposed to what a major power military would have spent during that timeframe? The US has spent billions of dollars attacking Iran and it seems that you've been able to hold off Russia for years at a much lower cost. Do you have a sense of that cost differential?

Andrii Hrytseniuk

Of course. And economics of the war, this is a very important aspect of war strategy. If you need to waste $1 million to hit one Shahid that cost $50,000, this is in favor of the enemy. Of course, and this is one of the reasons why interceptors appear. Because interceptors that cost a few thousands effectively destroy Shahids that cost 50,000. And this is the economics of the war in favor of Ukraine, of defending countries. Why, when we identify in 2024, we saw the potential. And it became one of the most important areas of work of BREWAN and Ministry of Digital Transformation to implement and to scale this technology. And right now we have more than 150 different Ukrainian companies who produce interceptors. And the market is not mature. And the new and new models, new and new approaches of intercepting appearing on the market and inventing by Ukrainian and right now international companies. Three international companies who produce interceptors very actively work here in Ukraine and they do amazing things. And as a result, the capitalization level of this company and market valuation became very high. Because every company who would like to be the player in the defense industry has to be here in Ukraine. And their products have to be tested. Sometimes we shocked when the different countries buy the drones that have not been tested in Ukraine, but just declared that they work. And we answered, come to us. We are happy to help and test and give the recommendation, some validation report and recommendation report. And you can, after that, take a decision. Is it really a good drone that will effectively work against Shahid? Or is it just an illusion of having the defense of security?

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode

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