Ukraine firm can win over $500K by landing drone at Russia’s Victory Day parade in Moscow

A Ukrainian businessman has launched a competition to incentivize drone manufacturers to land an aircraft at Moscow’s annual May 9 Victory Day parade on Red Square. What’s hard to resist is the massive prize pool, which currently stands at $550,000 and is only getting bigger.

The contest was announced by Monobank cofounder Volodymyr Yatsenko during a live telethon last week. Yatsenko, whose fintech company serves over 5.5 million customers, later explained in a Facebook post the drone is expected to carry on its wings the battle cry of the Ukrainian military: “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!”

Here’s Yatsenko:

I am officially awarding a prize to a Ukrainian UAV manufacturer, whose aircraft, with the help of the military, of course, will fly and land on Red Square in Moscow on May 9.

Yatsenko has set aside $500,000 out of his pocket as the jackpot, while another $500,000 is expected to be raised through crowdsourcing. The businessman hopes the prize money will be divided fairly between the drone manufacturer and the military operators who successfully complete the task.

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Essentially, the idea is to reward the most promising Ukrainian drone manufacturer with funds that can be used to improve the aircraft. “I call on all interested entrepreneurs,” said Yatsenko. “Somewhere near you is our Ukrainian ‘Steve Jobs’ who is creating quite interesting things in garages. Watch and support them.”

Yatsenko himself manufactures Dovbush T10 reconnaissance drones that can be upgraded to strike a target as well, but he’s made it clear that those won’t be a part of the competition. That said, Dovbush is also expected to fly to Moscow on the day that commemorates the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

One Ukrainian drone company that has already confirmed its participation in the contest is SpecAero. It plans to modify two drones for long-range flights and increase the chances of completing the mission.

Yatsenko is convinced the task can be accomplished because a Ukrainian drone managed to find its way to New Moscow last month.

“On March 28, there was already news that some small training drone with the Ukrainian slogans flew to New Moscow. But it hit a high-voltage line. We had just 45 km to Red Square left to fly. It was the preparation for the parade. We watched how they reacted – whether they saw us or not. And I can say that everything will be fine. So, let’s arrange a ‘holiday’ for them together!” said Yatsenko.

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