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Ukraine's European partners can increase the production of their own weapons by two to three times, but they are not doing so yet. As the correspondent reports, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this in Warsaw at a joint press conference with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
According to him, during the war, the ratio of weapons supplied to the Defense Forces from partner countries and from Ukrainian manufacturers has changed significantly.
“Today they are next – somewhere around 33-34% of all weapons in Ukraine today, this is domestic production with 100% of what we need per year. And this is a serious increase, because there were less than 10… About 30% is Europe. And somewhere more than 30%, about 40% is the United States of America,” the president said.
In this regard, the head of state acknowledged concern about the prospect of losing one of the key foreign suppliers of military assistance.
“We cannot look at today's guarantees of support for Ukraine without one of the players, as equal as possible, as you can see. Europe and the United States of America. And it is very important for us to preserve this union. And these are also security guarantees. And when we talk about future security guarantees, which we will talk about with the United States of America, we will talk about this too,” Zelenskyy emphasized.
As the president noted, the Russian army surpasses the Defense Forces in the number of tanks, aircraft, helicopters, and other equipment and weapons. At the same time, the Ukrainian army has more drones, which are provided by domestic production, including at the expense of partners.
“We need it, really. If all these Russian assets are unfrozen now, we will have more money not only for reconstruction, but also for more internal growth [of weapons production],” Zelensky said.
At the same time, the President of Ukraine criticized Western partners for their reluctance to increase weapons production.
“If you pay attention to the number of military-sector factories, then in Russia there will be 30+, and in Europe, in the EU, there will be 40+. Why is Europe producing less today? A serious question? How can Europe produce more? Give more contracts to its domestic manufacturer, to its people. They will pay taxes in their states, European ones. And at the same time, I believe that today it is easier for Europe to produce more weapons not only for Ukraine, for defense, for itself, than for Russia. Although Russia [produces weapons] faster. Why is it easier - because we have a war. And they shoot at us, and we shoot at them. And there are sanctions, thanks to partners, when something moves more slowly through logistics to Russia. These or those details for this or that weapon. Europe can grow - increase its production by two or three times,” Zelensky emphasized.
He is convinced that such an increase in weapons production will strengthen not only Ukraine.
In addition, as the president said, he considers Ukraine's mandatory accession to NATO to be another part of the security guarantees for Ukraine.
