President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Ukraine’s Western allies to dedicate 0.25% of their GDP towards assisting Kyiv in increasing weapons production. He also mentioned that the country intends to finalize agreements this summer to commence the export of weapon production technologies.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Western allies to allocate 0.25% of their GDP towards enhancing Ukraine’s weapons production as the nation seeks to bolster its defense capabilities in light of the ongoing conflict with Russia.
In statements released by his office on Saturday, Zelenskyy also indicated that Ukraine intends to start exporting weapon production technologies this summer. Discussions are currently taking place with several nations, including Denmark, Norway, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Lithuania, regarding the establishment of joint weapons manufacturing agreements.
Zelensky accused Western companies of providing Russia with equipment utilized in weapon manufacturing, in comments made public on Saturday.
“The Russian Federation acquires machine tools from certain countries –- machine tools that they employ to produce weapons,” he stated, noting that firms from the Czech Republic and Germany were among those involved.
On Friday, Zelenskyy mentioned that Ukraine is focused on the swift development of interceptor drones to combat the increasing swarms of Russian drones that have been targeting Ukrainian cities in greater numbers in recent weeks.
Ukrainian officials have observed a significant rise in the deployment of Iranian-designed Shahed drones by Russian forces during a single night and emphasize the necessity of developing technology capable of addressing the threat they present.
He also reported that Kyiv received the remains of 20 Russian soldiers instead of Ukrainian ones during the exchanges of war casualties with Moscow.
He accused Russia of “not verifying” the identities of those they were sending and suggested that Moscow might be intentionally doing so to inflate the count of Ukrainian bodies they possess.
The repatriation of deceased soldiers and the exchange of prisoners of war has been one of the few areas of collaboration between the conflicting parties since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Earlier this month, Moscow and Kyiv reached an agreement during discussions in Istanbul to exchange the remains of 6,000 soldiers each.
“It has been confirmed during repatriations that the remains of 20 individuals, presented to us as our fallen soldiers, are of Russian origin,” Zelensky stated in comments made public on Saturday.
“Occasionally, these remains even possess Russian passports,” he continued.
He also mentioned that an “Israeli mercenary” who is fighting for Moscow was included among those returned.
Since the onset of the war, tens of thousands of soldiers have lost their lives on both sides. Neither nation routinely discloses details regarding military fatalities.
Zelenskyy indicated that there are currently “695,000 Russian troops” present on Ukrainian soil.
With contributions from various agencies.
