Germany shops for Ukraine’s Bars as a cut-price cruise missile

Since July, Germany has paid for Ukraine to build Bars, a jet-powered drone that behaves like a small cruise missile, and Ukraine has fired them at Russian refineries. Now Berlin wants some for itself. A German official told the Kyiv Independent on 24 October that Germany is negotiating with Ukraine to buy Bars for the Bundeswehr. If a deal is signed, a NATO army will have become a customer of Ukraine’s wartime arms industry rather than only its financier.

This article continues for subscribers. Subscribe to read the full analysis.