Addressing the heads of dozens of foreign arms manufacturers in Kyiv on Tuesday, the 1st of October, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in comments authorised for publication on Wednesday that Ukraine can produce four million drones a year and is rapidly ramping up production of other weapons and has already signed a contract to produce 1.5 million drones this year, reports Reuters.
Before the Russian invasion in February 2022, Ukraine had virtually no drone production.
“In the very difficult conditions of a full-scale war, when Russia was constantly attacking, Ukrainians managed to create a practically new defence industry,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine tripled its total domestic arms production in 2023 and then doubled it again in the first eight months of this year, Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal announced at the same meeting. Ukrainian officials did not provide specific figures.
In its 31-month war with the aggressive Russians, which has no end in sight, Ukraine is currently spending about half of its national budget on defence, or about 40 billion US dollars. Ukraine also receives a great deal of military and financial support from its Western allies.
Russia is expected to increase its military spending next year by 25% compared to 2024 levels, to around 145 billion US dollars.
Ukrainian officials say they expect foreign funding to gradually decrease while defence needs continue to grow, with Kyiv increasingly focusing on maximising domestic production.
Shmyhal said that the government plans to increase spending to boost domestic arms production in 2025.
“Next year’s budget includes a 65% increase in funds for arms purchases. This is an increase of almost seven billion US dollars,” Shmyhal said at the forum.
He said Ukraine’s strategic challenge is to increase its internal long-range capabilities and create conditions to gain technological superiority over Russian forces.
Ukraine also considers the possibility of striking deep inside Russia a priority. Zelenskyy has sought Western approval for the use of their long-range missiles, but no agreement has yet been reached.
“One of our strategic tasks is to strengthen Ukraine’s long-range weapons capabilities so that there is no safe place in the European part of Russia that our drone and missile “debris” cannot reach,” said Shmyhal.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Ukraine signed contracts with foreign companies to manufacture ammunition, drones and repair Western equipment on its territory. In addition, the Franco-German defence group KNDS announced the opening of a branch in Kyiv.
Moscow’s forces are steadily advancing in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and on Wednesday announced full control of Vuhledar.