A total of $1.6 billion of the recent US aid to Ukraine will go to the purchase of Ukraine-made weapons, said a senior Kyiv official.
The $61 billion US aid package includes $23 billion to replenish American weapons stocks already sent to Ukraine and another $14 billion for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which allows the Pentagon to buy new weapons for Ukraine.
According to the Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Policy and Interparliamentary Cooperation Arseniy Pushkarenko, some of the USAI purchases will be made from non-US companies.
“This is very important today, because it is about the creation of joint defense enterprises that will be located on the territory of Ukraine or in neighboring countries, taking into account security aspects,” Pushkarenko said.
“This is one of the factors in the development of the Ukrainian economy. Today, the military technologies that we have are tested in combat conditions, which makes our military-industrial complex attractive enough for many countries of the world.”
Kyiv’s Push for Ukraine-Made Weapons
Ukraine earlier launched an international fundraising campaign to raise $10 billion from abroad for the procurement of Ukraine-made weapons.
Denmark responded first with an allocation of $28.5 million for purchases.
The investment was part of a larger $321 million military aid package Copenhagen had announced for the country.
More countries, including the UK, the Netherlands, and Latvia are expected to announce similar measures, according to Militarnyi.
According to the Ukrainian outlet, about half of the 582.2 billion Ukrainian hryvnia ($1.47 billion) in contracts the Ukrainian defense ministry has placed has gone to domestic producers.
