your corrections in case the broadcast signal is lost, watch espresso on the satellite now espresso has become available on two satellites at once viewers who watch our channel on the astra satellite should readjust the tuner to the new parameters because the old parameters will soon stop broadcasting espresso ukrainian view thank you for watching welcome to on the espresso channel, today we will talk about our national defense industry and public and private in war conditions, how and how our defense industry helps the armed forces and why do we more and more often mention foreign models of weapons and very little about our own? my name is serhiy zgurets. i am the director of the information consulting company defense express, which, together with the espresso channel, tries to highlight the current trends in the life of our armed forces and the defense industrial complex. my interlocutor today is the general director of the league of defense enterprises

of ukraine. yuriy brovchenko, the league unites private companies of ukraine that are key manufacturers of weapons, such as armored vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles and radar units of guided weapons, including the well-known neptune complex that sank in moscow, as well as various defense systems, mr. yuriy. i welcome you to the espresso channel. good day. i am very pleased, and first of all, glory to ukraine and glory to our defenders, and i think that our conversation will be quite interesting, we will strive for this and i will start with the fact that today there is a lot of talk about the fact that the united states and the west should increase and accelerate the supply of weapons to the ukrainian army, the meetings in the rammstein format were dedicated to this , the lend-lease program was dedicated to this, it was announced that we have to get at least a thousand guns and as much ammunition as possible for these

weapons systems, how do you, as a former military man and, as i understand it, an artilleryman with my first professional education, assess our desire to have much more foreign weapons, they must understand that at this moment we have lost certain production capacities and today we really do not need the help that is provided to us and there should be much more of it, first of all, i would like to understand that the accompanying process is to thank our strategic partners to our friends who provide colossal material assistance for the support of the armed forces and the military formation of our military formations, this is really necessary, but at the same time we must understand that our

industry is capable of producing samples that meet nato standards and we are ready to issue them, including to a private company. if so, please, can you outline the general situation before the start of the active phase of the war precisely on the 22nd year in february, what we were ready for what were we not prepared for in view of the preparation of the economy and industry for such an intensive nature of hostilities, well, we can say that we were limited in the first place for such a large-scale war against ukraine, at the same time , in my opinion, some inaccuracies were made, not an analysis of inaccuracies, but we must understand that the program documents that were introduced in 2017

, they give a clear, clear idea of ​​how we were supposed to develop ourselves and develop our defense defense-industrial complex, what was the support in including private sex, today we understand that the private sector really needs more detailed attention, we must also understand that the defense industry until 2019-2022 was a little bit in such a significant introduction, this is connected primarily with the formation of the ministry of strategic industries that was problematic enough and it was moving quite complicatedly and at the same time we introduced the law, put

into effect the law on defense purchases, which, in my opinion, are sufficiently opposed and analyzing the norms the law on defense procurement uh, it uh, in my opinion, is much more bureaucratic than the law on state security orders, so it led to the failure of the authorized representative of the defense-industrial complex to make operational decisions by the ministry of strategic industries in 2020-21 . -e to a certain slowdown in the development of our defense-industrial complex, including what concerns the purchase of military equipment of domestic production, that is, in fact, it is possible to talk about the fact that we

lost the 19th, 20th and 21st years to organizational measures and structural changes in the defense industry, which did not actually speed up the production of certain samples, but on the contrary complicated the procedures. in 19-21 years, the purchase of domestic weapons was preferred , including by the foreign brother of the border purchase of samples of military equipment . enterprises from the portal their production because they did not see their prospects in the supply of weapons, well, the supply of weapons to the armed forces and other military formations, this applies

directly to private companies or also to state ones, that is, whether or not the literary year of the military-industrial complex of ukraine, a similar situation was also state-owned enterprises, well this is my personal opinion, i see it in the press of support and communicating both here with enterprises and manufacturers and with specialists of the armed forces of ukraine, but the defense budget of the 20th in the 21st year, the 22nd year, it increased, which means that despite the increase in the share of arms procurement to our and state-owned enterprises, a significant share of funds was allocated to private ones, which allowed them to ensure the planned production of military equipment, so it turns out to be true, we must realize this and provide for this, conduct an appropriate analysis and e-e review all

priorities that the government should implement in relation to both state and private companies that manufacture weapons and the military technical school we will come back to the priorities a little later, but they are such a question that before the war, we would pass the active phase, we could produce serially and in sufficient quantities , both in state companies and in private ones. could provide uavs, in my opinion, with both light and heavy armored vehicles, well, heavy armored vehicles, not 100%, maybe not 100%, but 80%, we could provide heavy armored vehicles with light armored vehicles and in my opinion deep conviction we could provide 100%,

uh, our armed forces other military formations with the means of radio electronic warfare we could very much move uh in our favor and on the provision of the armed forces. e segment, how much could it take, including the manufacture of ammunition, ammunition caliber 100-150-2 mm, and we could provide ourselves at the very least from 30 to 50% of the need , despite the stocks that were stored in warehouses of the armed forces of ukraine well, then let's start about ammunition in more detail, because the language is shorter , now the american side says that we are running out of ammunition for soviet hummingbirds

, now the americans are financing the project directly in poland and bulgaria so that they renew the installation of art ammunition in these calibers that should be supplied to our armed forces, and in our country directly, these state programs of the ammunition industry did not have any such rational conclusion, neither in large caliber nor in small caliber and even in small arms ammunition, please explain why this happened or whether there are any options for getting out of this situation, well, in particular, with the same ammunition for the small arms system, if we take classic artillery, we currently have several enterprises in ukraine that, in principle, in e- it’s small, it’s small, it’s small-scale production, it’s artillery shells, it

’s a great pity, charges, it’s a very problematic, it’s a very problematic issue today regarding the production of charges. if we talk about shells in principle, one of the state-owned enterprises and in my opinion there are two private enterprises that today are able to produce projectiles with a caliber of 100 to 152 mm and satisfy the needs of up to 30 to 30, i would say 30 to 30%, er- is what is used today and 100%. we are not able today. what influenced these factors, why were we not able to organize until the end of the production of munitions? it is my deep conviction that this is an

internal time when certain, including state institutions and power structures, blocked it. at a certain stage of the execution of certain contracts that made it possible today, even at a minimum, to produce 200 to 300,000 projectiles a year with a caliber of 100 to 152 mm in ukraine . the program for the development of the ammunition industry under the program for the development of the defense-industrial complex we have practically completed the preparation of production for cartridges for small arms calibers from 5.45 to 9 mm and large-caliber e-e cartridges e-e was not considered at that stage today it should also be in

one of the priorities is to develop this production. i don't want to name the companies for obvious reasons and uh, well, we are very well. we are very well aware of the results when there is a reference to a specific company. give answers to all those questions why did it happen like this but ammunition is needed already today even if we do not name the enterprises or do not put them at risk, we know that the key enterprises in the capital in other cities that were connected with the ammunition industry was subjected to a missile attack by enemy forces, this means that under these conditions it will be

difficult to renew these cooperation ties, is there still a possibility even in war conditions to manufacture art ammunition and small-arms and small-arms ammunition? i believe that such an opportunity exists in ukraine today and a certain transfer of e-e production capacities of both state-owned and private enterprises to various locations in ukraine has been carried out, where e-e production has been resumed today. including the preparations for the production of ammunition, is the information correct that we have close contacts with foreign partners to speed up the ammunition production process, and are there options when it can be placed not necessarily on the territory of ukraine, but outside the borders of our country, or is it placement

outside the country is complicated enough; placement outside ukraine is currently uncomplicated; many countries are ready to place production in their country, understanding that this is the first this is a certain development of the economy of these countries. this is more of a question, i would say that this question is more relevant to the ministry of strategic industries, which today is responsible for the formation and implementation of state policy in the field of popc that's why it's more yes it's more their question whether it is expedient or not expedient today everything will depend on those events that will develop in the east and south of our country e-e we

believe in victory about that we must understand that er, these events affect not only the possibility of production, but at the same time, in the opinion of certain officials of our partners, who are quite risky and suspiciously looking today at placing a certain production on the territory of ukraine. we understand that we are short of ammunition, we lack uh repair capacity to recover from our destroyed armored vehicles due to the destruction of uh repair factories at the base locations where they were uh placed, and then we understand that there are specific priorities that must be implemented due to the mutual actions of the ministry of defense, the minister of

technology, ukroboronprom, but to continue in 2-3 months, i communicate with various managers of the enterprise and hear from them that in fact there are some clear signals from the side of these state bodies and state structures do not reach them, they decide at their own discretion to reposition their enterprise on their own schedule, choose some projects that they finance from the financial funds, and then where is the state in terms of priorities and the financial support of these priorities? what is the ministry of technology, ukroboronprom , and the ministry of defense directly concerned with? let's take the provisions of the law of ukraine on mobilization , that is, there is such a concept as drawing up an economic plan for the time of military operations, in which

it must be written clearly where in in what way and how are these or other enterprises of both the public sector of the economy and the private sector of the economy moved, to our great regret, those events happened when the state forgot about the private sector, the moment when an adequate reaction to the relocation of these enterprises was needed, mainly this concerns the private sector, we really encountered a misunderstanding , the enterprises themselves were looking for locations where they could be located, it was quite difficult to coordinate the issue with local authorities, it was well

literally the first month, so then it started to stabilize, everyone understood that the e-location of enterprises makes it possible, among other things, to create jobs in those places where these enterprises move, and indeed, recently, local state authorities have really returned to these issues very positively and indeed, there is a lot of support in the matter of placement and provision of e-e support and in documentation and, well, in all aspects related to the placement of our enterprises in other locations, so there is such information because it is, relatively speaking, a horizontal level. i know examples of companies that left kyiv, arrived in western ukraine, launched production, and indeed they received support from

local authorities, but when we talk about the state structure of the minister of technology, there are certain plans. financing and where some kind of financial support was to be determined regarding the relocation of the documentation teams, the creation of conditions for the deployment of new capacities, but in two months, through the prism of not necessarily even state companies, but through private companies, what is happening now with the enterprises of the league , do you have any general picture to understand how the enterprises survive today in the conditions of war, what they hope for and what are the results of this, let's say, intermediate stage in formation of our defense industry in the conditions of war well, we must understand that there are certain productions that are quite problematic to move and it is very expensive, and it is quite expensive, and the measure that needs to be

carried out, especially as it concerns specialists and of the scientific and technical potential of these enterprises, that it is very problematic to transfer and place people, but well, these issues were resolved quickly enough. i will return to the bodies of local state authorities, unfortunately, the first month showed that we did not receive such support from the ministry of strategic industries industry where there really was a certain misunderstanding and we were very well aware that the most important thing was that they did not have the opportunity and financial resources for these measures, no one predicted that

project and in the state budget for 2022, such funds for the operational activities of these e-e central bodies of executive power were unfortunately not provided for. we must understand that this is the ministry of economy and the ministry of strategic industries is one more, in my opinion , important detail of this moment there is the fact that in us, well, this is my personal opinion, we have a divided industry between the ministries of the economy and the ministry of strategic industries, and this division does not give opportunities today to say more precisely who should be responsible for e-e enterprises for, including for the private sector

that produce products in the interests of the military-industrial complex, including from e-e in the interests of e-e armed forces and other military formations. that is, it means in other words that the entire private defense industry remained beyond the attention of the state and the survival of each individual private defense enterprise depends on the persistence of its direct manager and the ability to find his place in this chain of arms supply. if this fails, then it's just that this area of ​​competence, which was connected with one or another enterprise, is simply dying, yes, unfortunately, today it is like that. okay. then the question arises that now the ministry of defense directly relies on special exporters who are included in the ministry of defense, and there is an impression that directly in the art of defense is now the main focus on two directions: foreign military

equipment that comes in the form of military aid and special exporters that try to meet the needs of the ministry of defense due to its connections in one or another country, this means that this direction of foreign technology is currently dominant for ukrainian realities, so it turns out. well, in certain directions, it is a certain direction if we discuss e-e artillery , rocket launcher systems. this is true yes, the priority is foreign supply because well, we must understand, we must realize that today we cannot produce sufficient quantities, including rzzvr, if we are already talking about the russian federation, for example, alder, then here it is necessary to really give preference to this tool, including the neptune complex as a tool. i think that

our production and procurement are equally balanced here. well, you were at the meetings of the ministry of defense recently . interested in some long-term projects that rely on the competences of ukrainian enterprises. the defense should be primarily interested in the quantity, and the main thing is the quality of weapons and military equipment for the performance of the tasks facing them , e.e., on the contact line in the south and the stairs, first of all, and here it cannot be a priority whether ukrainian

production or foreign production, they should apply this policy should be primarily of the ministry of defense, which implements this or that policy in the field of armament of military equipment and carries out the provision of the armed forces, the armed forces should provide the need and the ministry of defense must provide it, and will it be domestic production or will it be foreign production, they should be the least interested, in my opinion, it should be of interest to the ministry of strategic industries if they are responsible for the formation and implementation of state policy in the field of the defense-industrial military-industrial complex. they must carry out that analysis and prove the necessity and the

possibility of manufacturing a sufficient quantity of that armament of ukrainian -made military equipment for our military here should be key, in my opinion, the key role of the ministry of strategic industries, i.e. the ministry of static industries must ensure that key competencies in the defense industry are preserved so that it is a real sector of the economy where the defense industry manufactures a product and creates, let's say, conditions for the economic growth of enterprises and added value directly for the economy of the country, which is extremely necessary to have, let's say, some kind of support there in the conditions of hostilities, if this is ignored, then there is only eh foreign military aid and then a conditional situation arises if there the americans give us a significant number of those m-113 guns. and we cannot ensure the production of the fourth armored personnel carriers there, then after a certain time we will have

british batteries to equip the ukrainian army. let's just forget because no one managed to convey to the system approaches er the resuscitation of our bronze industry. this is how it turns out, we see and the latest statements of even er countries of our partners testify to the fact that now a plan is being developed for the transition of the ukrainian army completely to nato models in terms of weapons and military equipment, we and we must clearly realize that if there was no, no matter what the development of events, and the victory will be only ours, we must realize that we will move away from the models of the soviet union and will never return to them again, they have shown their effectiveness, at the same time we can, er, the armament of military equipment that is

supplied to ukraine today, which significantly exceeds the tactical and technical characteristics of the samples samples of weapons that are in the inventory is absolutely correct. by the way, this puts new demands on our public and private industry. i had a conversation with one of my friends who is currently preparing for hostilities, a new structure is being created, and they received italian mortars, and he says that italian mortars are much better, more ergonomic, made for a person in comparison with those mortars that our manufacturers tried to promote to the ukrainian army, and we told her a phrase that our defenders will still have to it is good to work so that their equipment meets the standard or that level of production that we see in foreign supplies. so what do you think will significantly cause for our

defense industry, this will be a challenge and we must be clearly aware that only those enterprises that will be able to master the production of the latest types of weapons are possible these will be samples and licensed ones, we will buy licenses for the production of certain samples of weapons and understand that these samples will also be those enterprises that will be able to apply these standards in their productions, grow their production to meet these standards, they will really be able to be competitive in the arms market. we must understand that the arms market will be tough enough, it has always been tough, it is tough, and the competition here has