Ukraine’s defense industry already has formats for investment cooperation with the Baltic and Scandinavian countries.

The Minister of Defense of Ukraine Rustem Umierov emphasized this at a briefing at NATO headquarters today, October 18, 2024. A Militarnyi correspondent reported this from the scene.

He spoke about this in the context of providing the Ukrainian soldiers with the necessary equipment manufactured in Ukraine, but there is a lack of funds.

According to Umierov, the intention to invest in the Ukrainian defense industry has been announced.

“We are working on the format of new investment projects and alliances. As I have already noted, we had already found these formats with the Scandinavian and Baltic countries,” the minister said.

He also emphasized that the Ukraine’s partners had highly appreciated the country’s capabilities:

“That is why we focused on increasing investment and financing of the Ukrainian defense capabilities during the meeting. My colleagues agreed that the capabilities and pace of Ukrainian defense industry today are unprecedented, and we can produce weapons and military equipment faster and much cheaper.”

Answering our colleague’s question about the interest of NATO countries, including the Baltic States and Scandinavia, in the military products manufactured by Ukrainian defense industry, Rustem Umierov said:

“We always hear at all meetings, and this morning some countries said that they want to buy the Ukrainian missiles, drones, electronic warfare systems and other products for themselves.”

In response to a question about exports, the minister clarified that it would be the decision of the Ukrainian authorities to interact with each of the partner countries:

“And we are now discussing the clear plans for each country, where Serhii [Serhii Melnyk, Deputy Minister of Defense] and his colleagues from the General Staff would work together with other ministries to crystallize themselves. What projects will we invest in with each country? We are discussing this now. We have determined the time by which we should crystallize ourselves and have a joint role with these partners. That is, there are already detailed discussions, projects are being defined, and they just need to sign it.”

Regarding the full or partial opening of exports, he said that after the proposals would be worked out with the partners, they would be submitted to the state leadership for a decision.