Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal said that Ukraine cannot allow the export of weapons when the army does not receive what it needs. That’s what he’s about told in an interview with the BBC.
“Exporting weapons is a political decision, always and in any country. In wartime, if our front-line defender does not have enough of one or another weapon, it cannot be exported until we replenish our armed forces to 100 plus percent”– said the minister.
According to him, the state should find ways to finance the purchase of additional volumes of weapons from Ukrainian manufacturers.
“For this, we are looking for additional funds, we are trying to order everything that can be produced in the state. But in the conditions of war, direct export is impossible to imagine.” Shmyhal emphasized.
He added that it is possible to attract financing within the framework of joint projects with partners.
“As I already said, there can be partnership projects, when a part remains in partners’ warehouses. It is possible to form strong arms exchange chains with partners. But not direct export.”, – emphasized the Minister of Defense.
We will remind you that on July 30, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi announced the Build with Ukraine program, which provides for the export of Ukrainian military technologies and the opening of production lines abroad. First of all, we are talking about the production of drones of various types, missiles and artillery on the territory of partner countries that already finance defense production or plan to do so. Earlier, Zelenskyi also stated that the authorities are studying the possibility of canceling the ban on the export of weapons produced in Ukraine with certain restrictions.
