Ukraine expands weapons production abroad and opens up exports of military technologies: Zelensky
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi stated, that the state is moving to a new stage in the development of the defense industry — from local production to international export of technologies and establishment of arms production outside the country. We are talking about the creation of joint production capacities, in particular for drones, missiles and possibly artillery systems, in partner states that support Ukraine politically, financially and institutionally.
According to the head of state, Ukraine has already launched the Build with Ukraine initiative, within which specific agreements will soon be concluded with the governments of European countries and other allies on the opening of joint production facilities. Those states that already provide financing for the development of unmanned systems and have begun to invest in the production of missiles will participate in these projects.
Ukraine will share its military technologies in order to organize cooperative production on the basis of enterprises of partner countries. According to Zelenskyi, part of these capacities will work to meet the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the rest will work to strengthen European security in general. The President emphasized that specific arrangements have already been made and production will begin during the war to ensure a constant flow of equipment to the front.
We will remind, in 2024, Ukraine was able to attract 43 billion dollars of investments in its own defense and industrial complex. For the next year, Kyiv offers its partners to allocate 0.25% of their GDP to support Ukrainian arms production — not only as a gesture of solidarity, but as a contribution to the collective security of the European space, of which Ukraine is a part.
The development of the armed forces is already producing concrete results: in less than three years, the scale of weapons production in Ukraine has increased 35 times. The potential annual volume of defense products is currently estimated at 35 billion dollars. This surge is an example of how the war not only forced Ukraine to defend itself, but also gave impetus to the formation of a powerful, technologically self-sufficient military industry.
