Dhaka, May 17 -- As US and Ukrainian officials this week neared a landmark deal on drone production, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius was visiting a frontline command post with his own Ukrainian counterparts, demonstrating Berlin's support for the Kyiv government.

A day earlier, Alex Karp, CEO of data integration and analysis giant Palantir, had made his own pilgrimage to Kyiv, meeting President Volodymyr Zelensky and signing a data sharing partnership with the Ukrainian military on a new project known as "Brave1-Datamine".

Having survived a freezing winter in which Russian drones and missiles attacked essential infrastructure, and successfully used a range of new technology to reduce casualties and stabilise frontlines, Ukraine ...