KYIV, Sept 30 — President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said today he wants to turn Ukraine’s defence industry into a “large military hub” by partnering with Western weapons manufacturers to increase arms supplies for Kyiv’s counteroffensive against Russia.
“We are interested in localizing production of equipment needed for our defence and each of those advanced defence systems which are used by our soldiers, giving Ukraine the best results at the front today,” he told the forum in Kyiv. Ukraine critically depends on Western financial and military support and has had tens of billions of dollars of such help since the start of Russia’s invasion in February 2022. But the war created a constantly growing demand for arms and ammunition.
Several leading Western producers like Germany’s weapon production giant Rheinmetall and Britain-based BAE Systems have already announced plans to team up with Ukrainian producers.