Kamyshin said his country’s arms industry can produce about $20 billion worth of weapons. The Ukrainian government plans to issue contracts for $6 billion, while another $4 billion would come from local partners; Ukraine’s allies could supply the missing $10 billion.
Denmark is leading the way, announcing last month that it will allocate 200 million krone (€27 million) to buy kit from Ukrainian businesses. Canada also promised to donate C$3 million (€1.1 million) to Ukraine for the production of drones by Ukraine’s domestic defense industry.
Now the idea is to expand those efforts by tapping into more aid money for Ukraine to sign procurement contracts.
“Our main task is to find additional funding for the defense forces in Ukraine. My task is to get this financing for production in Ukraine since we are already capable,” Kamyshin said. “We have additional non-contracted capacities, and we want them to be financed at the expense of European funds.”
Kamyshin said he had discussed with Borrell the idea of using the EU’s European Peace Facility, an off-budget fund that partially reimburses countries for the arms they send to Ukraine. The EU recently agreed to provide the Peace Facility’s Ukraine Assistance Fund with €5 billion for this year, with further annual cash injections expected until 2027.
“That’s short term, that’s a fast solution that could be really a good solution,” Kamyshin said on the sidelines of the conference, attended by about 40 companies from Ukraine and about 100 from the EU.
