As of April 2024, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry had signed contracts for the purchase of weapons worth UAH 0.5 trillion, of which almost half were concluded with Ukrainian manufacturers.

This was stated by Yurii Dzhyhyr, Deputy Minister of Defense.

As of April 2024, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has valid contracts for the purchase of weapons and military equipment in the amount of UAH 582.2 billion. Almost 50% of them are concluded with Ukrainian manufacturers.

According to the official, we are talking about agreements concluded in different years, which are in progress with different completion dates. Some of them are supposed to pay UAH 254 billion in 2024.

Yurii Dzhyhyr noted that Ukraine continues to receive significant international military assistance. However, an important aspect is to attract investment to develop the domestic defense sector’s own capabilities.

“We encourage international partners to invest in the Ukrainian defense industry and buy defense goods for the needs of the Defense Forces of Ukraine precisely from the Ukrainian manufacturer.

This is vital, because these finances will work for our country, stimulate domestic production and be the driver of Ukraine’s economy,” said Yurii Dzhygyr.

Investments in Ukrainian defense industry

This month, Minister for Strategic Industries Oleksandr Kamyshin announced that Ukraine is launching an international fundraising campaign to attract $10 billion from abroad to purchase Ukrainian-made weapons.

According to him, the first decision to purchase weapons for the Ukrainian Defense Forces was made by the Danish government. The country allocated $28.5 million to order weapons and military equipment for the Armed Forces of Ukraine from Ukrainian manufacturers.

“The Ukrainian defense industry has accelerated so much that the Ukrainian budget cannot load manufacturers’ orders for full. The capacity of the Ukrainian defense industry is about $20 billion. At the same time, Ukraine has only $6 billion for the purchase of weapons. Roughly speaking, we only have a third of all the machines that are in the country, because there is not enough money to provide orders for the rest.

The best way out of this situation is to convince partners who are ready to buy weapons for Ukraine to do it here. Ukrainian gunsmiths are able to produce more weapons – exactly the weapons that our military needs. Contracts for defense are an important element of economic support for Ukraine. Everyone is on the up when its about “Made in Ukraine,” the minister says.

It is expected that, in addition to Denmark, other customers of Ukrainian military products will also be the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Latvia, financing the purchase of drones through the so-called “Coalition of Drones.”

Representatives of Ukraine offered partners a form of cooperation on the principle of “50 – 30 – 20,” where 50% of the funding will fall on Ukrainian producers.