Ukraine needs industrial Ramstein-type meetings to get technology, equipment – Ukroboronprom head

KYIV. April 5 (Interfax-Ukraine) – In addition to Ramstein meetings, which are very important for the urgent receipt of weapons, ammunition, equipment, training of military personnel, and the integration of NATO standards, Ukraine also needs industrial Ramstein-type meetings, which will allow getting technology and equipment, Director General of the Ukroboronprom state concern Yuriy Husev has said.

“Create the necessary closed-loop production system that would be integrated into the global system and provided with resilience. What is resilience? It is when a missile hit in one place launches production mechanisms in another place in the right amount. Today we need this,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

Husev said that from the first days of his appointment, he has been working in a team with the new Minister of Strategic Industries, Oleksandr Kamyshin.

He added that they are discussing the issue with the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada to define the defense industry as a priority industry at the legislative level and create a new system of incentives and preferences for the defense industry, which would become the most attractive for investors.

“So that not only Bayraktar wants to build its own plant here, but we become a real industrial hub for manufacturing the latest weapons and equipment,” the director general said.

“Speaking more broadly, Ukroboronprom is only part of the system to supply weapons and equipment to our army. We have been living in the war for nine years, it has been a year of the full-scale invasion, and the challenges that we have received during this time say for sure: we need a new system of the defense industry – administration, management, financing, quality control, and international cooperation,” Husev added.

In his opinion, the future of the defense industry as a driver of the economy is ensured for the next few decades, which should inspire enterprises that are ready to become part of the defense industry and produce weapons and components.

“I believe that the economy, which today has become fully a war economy and accumulates all possible resources of the public and private sectors to fulfill the tasks of Ukraine’s national security and defense, after the victory, the next decades will fulfill orders to form stockpiles of weapons for us, as well as for our partners,” the director general of Ukroboronprom said.

Asked about the development of exports, he said that in the war conditions, the company works for victory and for the needs of the Armed Forces, and it has no other priorities. However, strategies for post-war renewal and development are already being laid.

“We are obliged to oust the Russian Federation and take a leading position in the traditional global markets for arms and military equipment, where they still occupy a significant place. It is a great challenge and, at the same time, a great opportunity – in the future, together with partners, to produce products that will be in demand, which helps us now to defeat the occupiers, and in the future, will take a leading position in the international arena,” Husev said.

He recalled samples of Ukrainian military equipment that operated well during the war: Bogdan, BTR-4, Stugna, Vilkha, Mineral-U, and Neptune.