Ukraine is rapidly producing a variety of indigenous weapons as its defense industry strives to meet the needs and demands of soldiers fighting on the front lines.
However, as Bussines Insider writes with reference to the Minister for Strategic Industry of Ukraine Alexander Kamyshin, official Kyiv still needs more of the “key ingredient” so that weapons continue to flow.
Several problems of Ukraine in the production of weapons
The publication estimates that before Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine produced almost no weapons for its Armed Forces and relied heavily on pre-existing stockpiles of Soviet supplies and support from international partners.
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Now the country is rapidly producing its own drones, artillery, missiles and much more to replenish these reserves.
— I don't think much about how we did it, but we did it — Kamyshin told Business Insider last week on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington.
According to him, Ukraine now has “several problems in this matter, just a few”.
— One of them — energy, explosives and missiles, and, perhaps, everything, — Kamyshin explained, reflecting on Ukraine's attempts to increase defense production.
According to him, today in the world “nobody produces enough and this is a global problem”.
— So the more you get, the more ammo you produce, — he added.
Weapons production in the West, Ukraine and Russia
Since the start of the full-scale war, Ukraine has received tens of billions of dollars in security assistance from NATO, including more than $53 billion from the United States alone.
But as the conflict progresses, the local defense industry is steadily supplying more and more of its own military equipment to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
These domestic efforts, writes BI, complement the supply of foreign weapons. However, according to Kamyshin, Ukraine will always depend on the support of the West, because now there is not a single country that could surpass Russia in production rates.
Russia also receives weapons from abroad — mainly from North Korea and Iran. But Moscow has also invested a significant portion of its GDP in military spending and put the economy on what experts say is a Soviet-style war footing.
Rapid domestic weapons production in Russia has alarmed some NATO allies and underscored the need for Ukraine to prioritize local production that helps grow the domestic economy.
From the granary to the arsenal
— We put everything we have into the war — Kamyshin said, noting that most of the budget goes to war.
According to him, Ukraine cannot beat Russia when it comes to funding and manpower, so it relies on quality rather than quantity.
— Therefore, we must surpass it in the quality of weapons, in the quality of people, and only in this way can we survive, — he said.
Kamyshin also recalled that the dawn of the Ukrainian defense complex occurred due to the Russian invasion.
— We were called the breadbasket of the Soviet Union. Then they began to call us the breadbasket of Europe. We have always been a good, peaceful, kind agricultural country. I myself was engaged in agriculture. At some point they came and started killing us. We had to learn how to fight again. It was not we who decided to turn from a granary into an arsenal, — says Kamyshin.
As Bussines Insider notes, one of the notable successes in this war has been Ukraine's program to develop indigenous drones. Official Kyiv uses long-range attack drones to destroy military and energy facilities deep in Russian territory and uses seaborne drones loaded with explosives to strike Moscow's warships in the Black Sea.
In addition, Ukraine also produces many first-person view (FPV) drones that are constantly present on the battlefield, providing a cheap way to carry out precision strikes against enemy armored vehicles and personnel.
And drones — not the only innovation. The publication recalls that Ukraine also developed a homemade anti-ship missile Neptune and used it to sink the Russian cruiser Moscow.
In parallel, Ukraine is taking increasingly active steps to further integrate its domestic defense industry with that of NATO and the European Union. To achieve this goal, Kyiv recently opened a representative office in Washington and is encouraging closer cooperation with Western weapons manufacturers.
