Ukraine can produce four million drones a year and is rapidly increasing the production of others weapons, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, quoted by Reuters.
In a speech in Kyiv to CEOs of dozens of foreign arms companies, Zelensky said yesterday that Ukraine has already signed contracts to produce 1.5 million drones this year.
Prior to the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022, almost no drones were produced in Ukraine, according to Reuters.
"In the extremely difficult conditions of a full-scale war under constant Russian strikes, the Ukrainians managed to create a practically new defense industry," Zelensky said.
Ukraine tripled its total domestic weapons production in 2023 and then doubled that volume in the first eight months of this year, Prime Minister Denis Shmygal said at the same event.
More than 31 months after fighting with invading Russian forces began, and with no signs of the war ending anytime soon, Ukraine now spends about half of its state budget on defense – or about 40 billion US dollars, notes Reuters. The country also receives significant military and financial support from its Western allies.
Russia, which is much larger and richer than its neighbor, is expected to increase its military spending by 25% next year compared to its 2024 level, to about $145 billion.
Ukrainian officials say they expect foreign funding to gradually decline and the country's defense needs to continue to grow. Kiev is increasingly focusing on the need to produce as much as possible on its domestic market.
Shmigal said the government intends to increase spending to help domestic arms production grow in 2025. "The budget for next year envisages a 65% increase in funds for the purchase of weapons. This represents an increase of almost US$7 billion," he pointed out.
According to the Ukrainian Prime Minister, Ukraine's strategic task is to strengthen its domestic long-range strike capabilities and create conditions for gaining a technological advantage over Russian forces.
"One of our strategic tasks is to strengthen the long-range strike capabilities of Ukrainian weapons so that there is no safe place in the European part of Russia that the "debris" of our drones and missiles," Schmigal said.
During yesterday's event, several agreements were signed between Ukrainian and foreign companies for the production of ammunition, various types of unmanned aircraft, and also for the repair of Western equipment in Ukraine.
The Franco-German defense group KNDS (KNDS), which produces heavily armored wheeled and tracked vehicles, has announced that it has opened a subsidiary in Kiev.