The Ukrainian NGO That Co-Built a Drone Interceptor | Dan Kucherenko, Serhiy Prytula Foundation

Jonathan Winch interviews his co-host Dan Kucherenko about the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation — one of Ukraine's largest wartime organisations, funded entirely by ordinary people.

The Foundation does something charities elsewhere in Europe do not do. It has no engineers, but it does have a military department in daily contact with soldiers at the front. Using that data, it worked with a Ukrainian manufacturer on a drone built to intercept Russian reconnaissance UAVs — advising on the speed and altitude it needed to match, and on communications that would still work in a GPS-denied environment. Ukraine's Ministry of Defence went on to rate the result the most effective drone of its kind in 2025.

Dan also explains how military equipment is actually procured in Ukraine. There are three routes: centralised Ministry of Defence contracts, decentralised purchasing where individual units buy direct from manufacturers, and donations through organisations like his own. He explains why the third route is usually where new technology gets proved first — and how the Foundation came to buy Ukraine a satellite.

Dan Kucherenko leads international partnerships at the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation in Kyiv — one of Ukraine's largest wartime organisations, with 120+ staff across five legal entities, working with more than 800 military units. He co-hosts Defence Forward.► Support Ukraine with the Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation