Ukrainian officials said on October 24 that the country has established a defense joint venture with German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall AG to maintain and repair weapons that the West has sent to Ukraine to help Kiev since the conflict with Russia broke out.
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| Rheinmetall AG said it owns 51 percent of the joint venture operating in Ukraine. (Source: Reuters) |
Speaking at a German-Ukrainian business forum in Berlin on October 24, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the joint venture would help localize some of the key equipment that Rheinmetall produces. According to him, the agreement would take cooperation between the two countries to a “qualitatively new level” and would allow both sides to jointly build “the arsenal of the free world.”
Ukraine is committed to launching domestic production of Western weapons to meet Ukraine's growing needs for its 20-month-old war with Russia that shows no signs of ending, according to Ukraine's Minister for Strategic Industries Oleksander Kamyshyn.
Oleksander also said he had met with representatives of 25 major German defense manufacturers in Berlin. Rheinmetall AG said in a statement that it owns 51 percent of the joint venture, which will operate on Ukrainian territory. The first project will repair German tanks, heavy armored vehicles, self-propelled artillery and other equipment.
Ukraine is heavily dependent on financial and military support from the West, which has provided tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons to Kiev since Russia launched its special operation in February 2022. Among these, Germany is Ukraine's key ally.
Ukrainian officials hope cooperation with Western arms manufacturers can help revive a domestic arms industry that suffered from inefficiency and lack of transparency in the years before Russia launched its special operations campaign in the country.
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