FM highlights massive growth in Ukraine’s domestic weapons manufacturing

Ukraine is actively working to reduce its reliance on specific countries for the supply of critical military equipment, Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha announced at a joint press conference in Kyiv with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan.

“Ukraine must become more self-reliant. It is essential that we continue to expand and strengthen our defence industry, where we have already made significant progress,” Sybiha said, Caliber.Az reports, citing Ukrainian media.

He highlighted that Ukraine has become a global leader in certain areas, especially in drone technology, and that production of key defence products has substantially increased.

“In some cases, we have scaled up the manufacturing of military equipment and weapons for the Armed Forces of Ukraine by as much as 35 times. Thanks to our defence industry, we now meet around 40% of our military’s needs domestically, which is a remarkable achievement,” Sybiha emphasised.

This includes producing artillery shells, including those that meet NATO caliber standards—a capability Ukraine lacked before the war. Some artillery systems are manufactured in quantities that exceed what larger countries with more resources can produce in an entire year; Ukraine achieves this output in just one month.

“We require more investments and additional support to boost the production of the necessary weaponry within Ukraine. The key lesson from this war is that we cannot depend on any one country to supply critical weapons to our army,” Sybiha concluded.

By Tamilla Hasanova