Europe’s Most Important Startups Are in Ukraine

At the General Chereshnya drone factory, Maxym, a tattooed former aircraft engineer with ear tunnels the size of quarters in his lobes opens a door to the whirr and clatter of 74 busy 3D printers. They’re spitting out the plastic parts to make interceptor drones, the latest innovation in Ukraine that’s transforming the face of war.

The foot-square quadcopters built here at General “Cherry” may look like something pulled from the shelves of a Best Buy store. They may cost just 48,000 Ukrainian Hryvnia ($1,154). But they also fly at up to 200 kilometers (124 miles) per hour and have racked up more than 5,000 confirmed kills against more valuable Russian attack and surveillance UAVs since first arriving on the battlefield in February. “It’s like buying an iPhone, only it’s cheaper and helps us win the war,” Andriy Lavrenovych, a Cherry board member, told me.