Ukraine scales up arms production amid Russia invasion

Amid the prolonged conflict, Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has revealed a major scale-up in arms production, aiming to strengthen its military capabilities and enhance its defense against Russia.

This plan is expected to include measures to stabilize the front line, support military innovation and arms production, and promote national unity and cultural identity.

Zelenskyy made this announcement during his speech on Tuesday, marking 1,000 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Reflecting on the relentless attacks by Russia, Zelenskyy vowed that Ukraine would not surrender its sovereignty or its territories and ruled out new elections until peace is achieved.

“At this stage of the war, it is being decided who will prevail whether us over the enemy, or the enemy over us Ukrainians and Europeans, and everyone in the world who wants to live freely and not be subject to a dictator,” he said.

Furthermore, Zelenskyy outlined a “resilience plan” for Ukraine, describing it as a domestic counterpart to the “victory plan” he had proposed to Western allies earlier in the autumn. This plan according to him, will pressure Russia into negotiating an end to the war in good faith.

As part of this initiative, Zelenskyy revealed that Ukraine plans to produce at least 30,000 long-range drones next year. These drones have been instrumental in narrowing the gap in strike capabilities with Russia and targeting critical locations deep inside Russian territory.

Zelenskyy’s strategic announcement came just two days after U.S. President Joe Biden authorized Ukraine to use a powerful American long-range weapon for limited strikes inside Russia, a decision that might affect the incoming leadership of the president-elect, Donald Trump.

Reacting to Biden’s approval, Russian President Vladimir Putin, accused him of escalating the war. The US government action also led Putin to sign an updated nuclear doctrine stating that Russia could consider implementing nuclear weapons if subjected to a conventional missile assault by a nuclear-backed power.

This change to Russia’s nuclear doctrine had been in development for months, but its signing this week is seen as a direct response to Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to fire long-range American missiles into Russia. Putin warned that any aggression against Russia by a member of a coalition would be regarded as aggression by the entire coalition.