What exactly is being produced in Ukraine today, what does the army still need, and how much of this can be provided by the domestic defense industry?

December 8, 2017 (The Ukrainian Week) Russia’s undeclared war against Ukraine is into its fourth year now, costing, in addition to human suffering, 4% of the country’s territory and 20% of its heavy industry, especially strategically important enterprises that produced ammunition, military devices, weapon guidance systems, and so on, that were located in Crimea and occupied Donbas.

All this time, Ukraine has had to rely on itself alone, since the bizarre - not to put it more strongly - licy of the West towards the aggressor has also restricted Ukraine’s ability to acquire weapons and military equipment. Indeed, those restrictions remain in place to this day. And so, on one hand, Ukraine had to provide armament and military equipment for its fighting forces, and, on the other, to develop promising models of weapons, find a way to substitute imports that used to be supplied by Russia, and at the same time to reform its entire military-industrial complex (MIC).

At this point, there have been some clear successes in these areas, alongside the revival of Ukraine’s armed forces. Certainly, there remain unresolved problems, but Ukraine’s army has everything it needs to fight off the enemy.

Over September and October, a series of international arms exhibitions and conferences took place in Poland and Ukraine, including the XIV International “Arms and Security 2017” Show and the V International Conference on “The Challenge of Coordinating Military Technical and Defense Industry Policy in Ukraine. Prospects for developing armaments and military technology,” held October 10-13 in Kyiv. A closer look at Ukraine’s defense products presented at these events, the conference materials on current issues in re-equipping the military, and military technology cooperation with foreign partners in Ukraine offers a number of conclusions. Given the uncertainty over US promises to supply weapons such as Javelin anti-tank units, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry plans to increase the purchase of Ukrainian-made Stugna and Corsar anti-tank guided missile systems, as well as BTR - 4Es and Oplot tanks.

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http://ukrainianweek.com/Society/205088