# OPEN LETTER: To Putin — your frozen assets now arm 150,000 drones against you

> On June 18, 2026, at the 35th Ramstein Contact Group, the United Kingdom announced a military package of £752 million for Ukraine. That package includes 150,000 Ukrainian-manufactured drones, more than 350 air defense missiles, and modern radar systems, with delivery scheduled before the end of 2026. But the detail that deserves your particular attention, Mr. Putin, is the fund

- Author: Maxime Marquette
- Publisher: MadMax (https://mad-max.co)
- Section: Open letter
- Published: 2026-06-29
- Canonical URL: https://mad-max.co/en/article/lettre-ouverte-a-poutine-vos-avoirs-geles-arment-maintenant-150-000-drones-contr

## Key takeaways

- The UK announced a £752 million package at the 35th Ramstein Contact Group, including 150,000 Ukrainian-manufactured drones, more than 350 air defense missiles and modern radar systems, with delivery scheduled before the end of 2026.
- The funding comes from frozen Russian asset revenues through the ERA mechanism, which uses the interest on roughly $300 billion in assets.
- The article presents the British role as consistent and early, citing Storm Shadow missiles, tanks and Operation Interflex training of more than 30,000 Ukrainian soldiers.
- It frames the package as part of a Ukrainian 40-day pressure operation against Russian energy infrastructure and an attrition strategy against Moscow.
- It discusses the possible full confiscation of Russian assets and the Gdańsk disbursement of €3.2 billion, while acknowledging legal obstacles.

## Introduction: Mr. Putin, read carefully

### June 18, 2026: a decision that concerns you directly

On **June 18, 2026**, at the **35th Ramstein Contact Group**, the **United Kingdom** announced a military package of **£752 million** for **Ukraine**. That package includes **150,000 Ukrainian-manufactured drones**, more than **350 air defense missiles**, and modern radar systems, with delivery scheduled before the end of **2026**. But the detail that deserves your particular attention, **Mr. Putin**, is the funding source: your own seized Russian assets, transferred through the **ERA mechanism**.

This is one of the most elegant reversals of the war you started. The money your state accumulated and placed in the international financial system now finances the weapons defending **Ukraine** against your armed forces. **Poetic justice** sometimes doesn't need to wait for the courts — it operates in real time, in the meeting rooms of Western finance ministries.

### The ERA mechanism: how your assets become drones

The **ERA mechanism** — **Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration** — is the instrument established by the **G7** and its partners to mobilize the revenues generated by **frozen Russian assets** held in Western financial institutions. These assets, estimated at approximately **$300 billion** worldwide, generate interest. And it is that interest — your money, **Mr. Putin** — that funds military support for **Ukraine**.

The **United Kingdom** is not alone in this approach. The **European Union** disbursed the first **€3.2 billion** of its **€90 billion** loan — backed by those same Russian assets — at the **Ukraine Recovery Conference** in **Gdańsk** on **June 25–26, 2026**. The mechanism is now fully operational, and it will continue generating resources for as long as the assets remain frozen.

*I'll admit a certain satisfaction in writing this letter. Not out of revenge — revenge is a poor guide in international politics — but because there is something deeply right about the idea that resources accumulated illegitimately are turned against those who amassed them to do harm.*

## The 150,000 drones: a metal army bearing your financial fingerprint

### The power of numbers in drone warfare

One hundred and fifty thousand drones. That figure deserves to be said slowly. **150,000 Ukrainian-manufactured drones**, funded by frozen Russian assets, delivered by the **United Kingdom** to **Ukraine** before the end of **2026**. For context: **Ukraine** produced approximately **one million drones** in **2024** by its own estimates. These additional **150,000** represent a significant injection into a war where drones have become the dominant tactical vector.

Ukrainian drones serve multiple roles: reconnaissance, artillery targeting, direct strike, logistical harassment. They have transformed trench warfare — static and lethal — into a three-dimensional battlefield where Russia's numerical infantry superiority is partially neutralized by the precision and ubiquity of Ukrainian drones. Adding **150,000** of these platforms amplifies that capability substantially.

### The 350 air defense missiles: protecting civilians from your strikes

More than **350 air defense missiles** are also included in the British package. These missiles — not all of whose exact types have been made public for operational security reasons — will feed the batteries protecting Ukrainian cities from precisely the kind of attacks you order night after night. Every intercepted missile is a life saved. Every battery supplied with munitions is a city protected.

The **United Kingdom** also announced the delivery of **modern radar systems**, essential for detecting incoming attack vectors and guiding interceptors. These detection systems are often the most valuable and least spectacular part of air defense — without the radar's "eyes," interceptor missiles have no target.

*Every air defense missile delivered to Ukraine is a direct, concrete answer to a Russian strike. This isn't symbolism — it's physics. The decisions made in meeting rooms in London translate into lives saved in Kyiv. That is the most direct causal chain I know of in international politics.*

## British consistency: unwavering support

### The United Kingdom as a pillar of Western support for Ukraine

Since the start of the war, the **United Kingdom** has been one of the most consistent and earliest supporters of **Ukraine**. It delivered **Storm Shadow** missiles ahead of virtually every other ally. It supplied **Challenger 2** tanks, **CV90** armored vehicles, and military training through **Operation Interflex**. The announcement of **June 18, 2026** fits squarely within that tradition of firm and steady support.

Prime Minister **Keir Starmer** has maintained the support policy inherited from predecessors **Johnson** and **Sunak**, strengthening it in certain respects. The meeting between **Starmer** and **Zelensky** on **June 16, 2026**, two days before the Ramstein announcement, allowed both sides to align positions before the official statement. This kind of quiet coordination typically precedes the most significant public announcements.

### Operation Interflex entering its new phase

Alongside the **£752 million** package announcement, the **United Kingdom** announced the start of a **new phase of Operation Interflex** — its specialized military training program for Ukrainian forces. That program, which has trained more than **30,000 Ukrainian soldiers** on British soil since **2022**, is now evolving toward more advanced skills: combined-arms operations, counter-drone warfare, battalion-level command.

Military training is often the least covered aspect of Western support, but it may be the most enduring. Trained soldiers remain operational for years. Skills transfer multiplies when those soldiers train their own comrades in turn. **Operation Interflex** is an investment whose dividends are measured in decades.

*I don't know the names of those Ukrainian soldiers trained in Great Britain. But I think of them — the men and women who left their families, crossed Europe to learn to fight more effectively, then went back to the front. British military training is a form of solidarity that doesn't photograph easily, but it saves lives.*

## To you, Putin: what you didn't anticipate

### The calculation that backfired

In **February 2022**, you calculated that **Ukrainian resistance** would collapse within days, that the **West** would hesitate to act, that your assets abroad would be protected by fear of escalation. Four years later, every one of those calculations has proven wrong. **Ukraine** holds. The **West** supports. And your assets now fund the drones striking your logistical positions.

That is the harshest lesson recent history is teaching you: democracies are slow, hesitant, and loud in their debates — but once they commit, they are tenacious. The **Ramstein** meeting of **June 18, 2026** is the **35th** session of a mechanism created specifically to counter you. It will meet again.

### The lesson history had in store for you

You believed that **fatigue** would be your ally. That the **West** would grow weary, that public opinion would turn, that defense budgets would create insurmountable divisions. That strategy partially worked — there were hesitations, difficult debates, moments of doubt. But each time, the democracies found solutions: frozen assets, innovative financing mechanisms, industrial co-production arrangements.

The British package of **£752 million** funded by **your own assets** is the most eloquent answer to your fatigue strategy. Not only is the **West** not getting tired — it is finding ways to fund its support that cost Western taxpayers nothing. Your money is paying for your gradual defeat.

*I should be honest: this open letter is a literary form. I don't believe Putin will read it, nor that he would change his mind if he did. But sometimes stating things plainly — saying that his calculations failed, that his assets now fund his adversaries — has value in itself. For the Ukrainians reading these lines. For the allies who still hesitate. For history.*

## What this package changes for Ukraine in 2026

### A reinforcement at a critical moment

The announcement of **150,000 drones** and **350 missiles** comes just as **Ukraine** has launched a **40-day operation** to apply maximum pressure on **Russia**. This operation, approved by the **SBU** in late June **2026**, targets Russian energy infrastructure — refineries, fuel depots — and deep logistical nodes. Drones are that operation's primary weapon.

The additional **150,000 drones** therefore arrive at a strategically perfect moment — or rather, this coordination is not accidental. Ukrainian and British defense teams synchronize their needs and deliveries with planned operations. That is the maturity of an alliance forged over four years of intense cooperation.

### The impact on pressure applied to Moscow

The combination of Ukraine's **40-day operation** and the steady flow of Western armaments creates pressure that **Moscow** must manage on multiple fronts simultaneously: defending its energy infrastructure against Ukrainian drones, sustaining its military effort along the front line, and managing an economy under sanctions. None of these challenges is unmanageable in isolation — but their cumulative weight over time erodes the resources and coherence of the Russian war machine.

This is precisely the logic of cumulative attrition that **Zelensky** and his allies have chosen as their strategy for forcing **Russia** to negotiate seriously. Not a single decisive military victory — unlikely in this type of conflict — but an accumulation of pressures that makes prolonging the war increasingly costly for **Moscow**.

*The attrition strategy is frustrating to watch because it is slow and costly in human lives. But in a war where neither side has the means for a swift total military victory, it is the only logic that holds. The 150,000 British-Ukrainian drones are one piece of that attrition mosaic.*

## The future of Russian assets: a tool for justice and reconstruction

### Beyond interest: toward the seizure of the assets themselves

The **ERA mechanism** mobilizes the **interest** on frozen Russian assets — not the assets themselves. A major legal and political debate centers on the question of fully confiscating those **~$300 billion** to fund **Ukraine**'s reconstruction. That debate is not settled. Legal opinions differ on whether such a move is compatible with international law.

But the trend is clear: the international community is gradually moving toward increasingly binding mechanisms for Russian assets. The **Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine**, created in **May 2026**, combined with the **International Claims Commission**, lays the legal foundation for compensating **Ukraine** at **Russia**'s expense — potentially through those frozen assets.

### Reconstruction: when the money of war funds the peace

The **Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdańsk** (June 25–26, 2026) saw the first disbursement of **€3.2 billion** from the **€90 billion** loan backed by Russian assets. This financial flow — from **Moscow** indirectly through frozen assets to **Kyiv** in reconstruction — is the economic version of the poetic justice I mentioned at the outset.

Gradually, international institutions are building an architecture in which it is **Russia** — through its frozen assets, through the reparations eventually imposed by the courts — that will fund the reconstruction it made necessary. That is not yet accomplished. But the foundations are being laid.

*I want to be transparent about a significant uncertainty: I don't know whether Russian assets will actually be used for large-scale reconstruction. The legal obstacles are real. But I do know that the direction in which international institutions are moving in 2026 is toward greater Russian financial accountability for the damages caused. That is slow but real progress.*

## Zelensky's diplomacy: getting the maximum from every summit

### Ramstein as both a platform and a tool of war

**Volodymyr Zelensky**'s engagement with the dynamics of the **June 18, 2026 Ramstein** is not passive. Ukrainian diplomatic teams work ahead of every meeting to identify expected announcements, coordinate with the most committed allies, and ensure that each session produces concrete commitments rather than general declarations. The British package of **£752 million** was discussed and refined in bilateral meetings before being officially announced to the contact group.

This proactive approach to defense diplomacy is one of Ukraine's great lessons from four years of war. Waiting passively for allies to act on their own is a losing strategy. Anticipating their hesitations, providing the political and military arguments to justify each decision, and ensuring that every summit produces concrete results — that is what **Zelensky**'s teams have learned to do with remarkable mastery.

### The Starmer–Zelensky meeting of June 16: behind the scenes of an announcement

On **June 16, 2026**, two days before the official Ramstein announcement, British Prime Minister **Keir Starmer** and President **Zelensky** met on the sidelines of the **G7 in Évian**. That meeting — confirmed by **Downing Street** communications staff — was when the details of the **£752 million** package were finalized and coordinated. Public summit announcements are almost always the result of private negotiations conducted in the corridors and meeting rooms of the days prior.

This is not diplomatic magic — it is intense groundwork, meticulous preparation, and a precise understanding of each ally's political constraints. **Zelensky** and his teams now know what each partner can and cannot announce, which arguments convince which decision-makers, and how to create the conditions for a maximum announcement at every opportunity.

*I have deep respect for this Ukrainian diplomatic mastery. It was acquired under the worst imaginable conditions — under bombardment, in absolute urgency, with exhausted human resources. And yet the results are there: summit after summit, Ukraine extracts concrete commitments. That is survival diplomacy at the highest level.*

## The message to hesitant allies: why every package matters

### Bulgaria suspends its aid — and the lesson of consistency

In stark contrast to the British announcement of **June 18, 2026**, **Bulgaria** — under its new Prime Minister — had announced just days earlier the suspension of its military deliveries to **Ukraine**. That decision, driven by domestic political pressures, created a visible crack in the cohesion of Western support. It illustrates the fragility of any coalition: it takes only one link to give way to weaken the whole.

That is precisely why announcements from countries like the **United Kingdom** matter so much. They compensate for defections, sustain momentum, and send a signal to all hesitant allies: the movement continues, the coalition holds, the commitment is real. In a coalition war, political cohesion is as important as military deliveries.

### The British model: showing the way to more timid allies

The **United Kingdom** deliberately plays a trailblazer role in certain decisions — **Storm Shadow** missiles before anyone else, permission to use British weapons on Russian territory before the others. This vanguard strategy creates precedents that other allies can follow by claiming that if London did it, they can too.

The **150,000 drones** funded by frozen Russian assets set a new precedent: the direct use of frozen asset revenues for defense procurement. If this mechanism works — and the **£752 million** suggests it does — other allies could adopt it, multiplying total financing capacity without burdening national budgets. This is as much a financial innovation as it is a military decision.

*I look at Bulgaria and the United Kingdom as two examples at opposite ends of this coalition. One suspending its aid because domestic politics demand it. The other multiplying its commitments by finding innovative financing. That contrast says everything about the difference between a foreign policy driven by conviction and one driven by opportunism.*

## Conclusion: History's irony in the face of war's brutality

### What this deal says about the state of the world in 2026

The British package of **June 18, 2026** — **£752 million**, **150,000 drones**, **350 missiles**, radar systems — funded by frozen Russian assets, is more than a military decision. It is a symbol of how the world has responded to Russian aggression: by turning the very tools of Russian power against it, transforming the assets of the Russian kleptocracy into weapons for Ukrainian democracy.

**Ukraine** still suffers. Russian missiles still fall. The front line moves slowly, painfully. But this country, supported by allies like the **United Kingdom**, holds. It innovates. It strikes deep. And it is already rebuilding — with the money of the one who destroyed it. This is **Ukraine** in **2026**: resilient, supported, and, against all odds, facing forward.

### The final word of this letter

So **Mr. Putin**, here is where things stand four years after your failed gamble. Your frozen assets arm **Ukraine**. Your army wears down. Your allies — **China**, **Iran**, **North Korea** — support you quietly, but none is willing to pay the price you are paying. And **Ukraine**, which you thought you would crush in three days, is signing drone co-production agreements with **Germany** and receiving **150,000** drones funded by your own money.

*Writing this open letter — even knowing it will never be read by its addressee — has something liberating about it. It means naming things clearly, saying that aggression has a cost, that Putin's calculation failed, that Ukraine is still standing. These truths deserve to be stated without detour, without diplomatic euphemism.*

History, **Mr. Putin**, will not be kind to you. It never is with those who choose brute force over law and freedom. But it will be generous to those who resisted — and to the allies who chose, despite the cost, to support them to the end.

**By Maxime Marquette, columnist**

## Columnist's transparency note

### Editorial stance

I am not a journalist but a **columnist and analyst**. My expertise lies in observing and analysing the geopolitical, economic and strategic dynamics that shape our world. My work is to take political strategies apart, to understand global economic movements, to put the decisions of international actors in context and to offer analytical perspectives on the changes that are redefining our societies.

I do not claim the cold objectivity of traditional journalism, which stops at reporting facts. **I claim analytical clarity**, rigorous interpretation and a deep understanding of the complex issues that concern us all. My role is to give meaning to the facts, to place them in their historical and strategic context, and to offer a critical reading of events.

### Method and sources

This text keeps the basic distinction between **verified facts and interpretive analysis**. The rule never changes: a factual claim is published only when a verifiable source supports it, and the sources this article actually used are listed under **Sources**, never here.

**Primary source families** used by the publication, when the story has them: official statements from governments and international institutions, public statements by political leaders, reports from intergovernmental organisations, dispatches from recognised international news agencies.

**Secondary source families**: specialised publications, internationally recognised news media, analyses from established research institutions, reports from industry organisations.

When an article cites statistical, economic or geopolitical data, it comes from the institutions that produce it (intergovernmental organisations, central banks, national statistics offices), and the exact institution is named under **Sources**.

### Nature of the analysis

The analyses, interpretations and perspectives in the analytical sections of this article are a **critical, contextual synthesis** based on the information available, the trends observed and the expert comments cited in the sources consulted.

My role is to interpret these facts, to set them in the context of today's geopolitical and economic dynamics, and to give them a coherent meaning within the larger story of the changes shaping our time. These analyses reflect expertise built through continuous observation of international affairs and an understanding of the strategic mechanisms that drive global actors.

This article describes a documented state of affairs on its publication date, not a prediction: later developments may shift its outlook. No update is promised in advance; when an article is corrected or completed, the change is dated in the text.

## Sources

### Primary sources

- [UK Government — £750 million package to provide Ukraine with 150,000 drones and boost air defence — June 18, 2026](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/750-million-package-to-provide-ukraine-with-150000-drones-and-boost-air-defence)

- [RBC Ukraine — UK to provide Ukraine with hundreds of missiles — June 18, 2026](https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/uk-to-provide-ukraine-with-hundreds-of-missiles-1781799344.html)

- [Militarnyi — United Kingdom to Ukraine: 150,000 UAVs and missiles — June 18, 2026](https://militarnyi.com/en/news/united-kingdom-ukraine-150000-uavs-missiles/)

### Secondary sources

- [Army Recognition — UK to deliver 150,000 drones, 350 air defence missiles and radars to Ukraine — 2026](https://www.armyrecognition.com/news/army-news/2026/uk-to-deliver-150000-drones-350-air-defence-missiles-and-radars-to-ukraine-by-2026)

- [Kyiv Independent — UK announces Ukraine support package ahead of key recovery conference — June 2026](https://kyivindependent.com/uk-announces-380-million-ukraine-support-package-ahead-of-key-recovery-conference/)

- [UK Government — Operation Interflex enters new phase of specialist training for Ukraine — 2026](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-led-operation-interflex-enters-new-phase-of-specialist-training-for-ukraine)

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Source: Maxime Marquette, MadMax. When citing, name the author and link https://mad-max.co/en/article/lettre-ouverte-a-poutine-vos-avoirs-geles-arment-maintenant-150-000-drones-contr