USAID Delivers Skydio Autonomous Camera Drones to Ukraine to Document War Crimes

July 27, 2023 at 13:05 PM EDT

Today, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced the delivery of nine autonomous drones donated by Skydio, a leading U.S. drone manufacturer, to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine. The Skydio 2+ drones have 4K cameras that will be used to take photo and video content to document war crimes. These will aid the Office of the Prosecutor General to document the more than 115,000 instances of destroyed civilian infrastructure, and evidence of human rights abuses on frontline communities and liberated territories. These drones are critical for the Prosecutor General’s team, as it pursues justice for survivors of war crimes and human rights abuses committed by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

In addition to facilitating this donation by Skydio, a U.S. private sector company, USAID supports broader efforts to pursue accountability for war crimes and human rights abuses. Two USAID-supported Ukrainian human rights coalitions have documented more than 40,000 incidents of Russia’s war crimes since February 24, 2022. USAID also participates in joint war crimes documentation visits with Ukraine’s Office of the Ombudsman for Human Rights.

USAID’s facilitation of drones donated by Skydio is the latest partnership with the U.S. private sector to support Ukraine. USAID has delivered Starlink data terminals donated by SpaceX, as well as laptops and software for Ukraine’s schoolchildren and teachers, donated by HP, Inc., JP.IK, and Microsoft. USAID also partners with the private sector to support Ukrainian grain production and export through the AGRI-Ukraine initiative launched in July 2022.

In Odesa last week, Administrator Samantha Power announced an additional $250 million in USAID support for AGRI-Ukraine, bringing the USAID contribution to $350 million, and leveraged an additional $250 million for the Initiative, including from fellow donors, the private sector, and foundations.