During a Cabinet of Ministers meeting on 3 January, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal outlined this year’s defence priorities, including building up domestic defence production capabilities, developing the missile programme, increasing the production of long-range drones, and creating a Finnish-style shelter system.

The Prime Minister noted that record expenditures were envisaged in the state budget to provide for the army and strengthen the defence industry.

“A total of UAH 2 trillion 230 billion has been allocated for defence and security. Every hryvnia of taxpayers’ money from the state budget will be used for these purposes again.

Spending on weapons and military equipment will amount to at least UAH 739 billion. Domestic defence companies plan to increase their existing production capacities by up to USD 30 billion,” said Denys Shmyhal.

He also noted that the Weapons of Victory project would introduce long-term contracts with manufacturers for 3-5 years.

“We will pay special attention to the long-range component and the missile programme. The task from the President of Ukraine is to produce at least 30,000 long-range drones. Ukrainian enterprises also plan to produce about 3,000 cruise missiles and drone-missiles,” the Prime Minister stressed.

In addition, according to him, attention will be paid to the development of the Danish model, under which partners buy weapons from the Ukrainian defence industry for the needs of the Ukrainian army. The project is expected to raise more than USD 1 billion in 2025.

Denys Shmyhal noted that in the security sector, the focus would be on developing a Finnish-style shelter system: “This is a public-private partnership that involves a large network of reliable shelters. In peacetime, these shelters will serve different purposes.”