Ukraine can produce four million drones annually and is quickly ramping up its production of other weapons, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated. Speaking to executives from foreign arms manufacturers, Zelenskyy said Ukraine contracted to produce 1.5 million drones this year. Drone production was virtually non-existent in Ukraine before Russia’s invasion.
“In extremely difficult conditions, Ukrainians were able to build a virtually new defence industry,” said Zelenskyy. Ukraine tripled domestic weapons production in 2023 and then doubled that volume in the first eight months of this year, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told the same gathering. “While working in the brigade, I made a number of decisions aimed at strengthening effectiveness of our defence,” Syrskyi said.
Over 31 months into its war with no end in sight, Ukraine now spends roughly half of its state budget – or about $40 billion – on defence. Ukraine also receives large amounts of military as well as financial support from its Western allies. Russia is expected to hike its own military spending by 25% next year from its 2024 level, to about $145 billion.
More than two-and-a-half years into the full-scale war, Ukrainian troops are on the defensive. Ukraine announced that it was pulling troops out of Vuhledar, a hilltop bastion that resisted intense Russian attacks.
Ukraine’s eastern military command said it ordered a pullback from Vuhledar to avoid being encircled by Russian troops and to “preserve personnel and military equipment”. Russia has widely used the tactic to secure control of other Ukrainian settlements.
“Lives (of soldiers) need to be saved because they are our people, they are citizens of Ukraine,” said Zelenskyy. Making the statement alongside new NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. “Therefore it is very right that they can retreat and save themselves.”
Moscow’s forces now control just under a fifth of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow’s primary goal is to take all of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Russian forces have been pushing westwards at key points along some 150 km of the front in Donetsk, with the logistics hub of Pokrovsk a key target. Ukraine’s General Staff said the Pokrovsk sector remained the theatre of the fiercest fighting. It said Russian forces had launched 28 attacks on Ukrainian forces in that sector and a further 23 in the nearby Kurakove sector.
