Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has authorized 30 companies to form private air defense groups, marking a major expansion of an already established experimental project that brings businesses directly into the country’s air defense efforts against Russian drone attacks. Officials say these units are already helping shield factories and critical-, as well as civilian-, infrastructures that are frequent targets.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. The project, first launched in November 2025, enables companies to apply for a special status from the ministry, form their own units, and integrate them into the national air defense system under the command of the Air Force. The initiative is not used to replace regular air defense, but to add an extra layer of protection to Ukraine’s multi-tiered systems around vulnerable targets. “We need to cover all of Ukraine and see all the targets,” explained Yuriy Myronenko, the inspector general at Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense who oversees the initiative. “So accordingly, we use all the resources we have.” The project’s purpose for 2026 is “to identify 100% of air threats and to destroy 95% of them,” Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said, presenting an action plan that provides three strategic goals – to close the sky, to stop the advance of Russian troops in each domain, and to deprive Russia of economic resources for warfare.