Ukrainian weapons production chief on why U.S. support is critical in fight against Russia

Amna Nawaz:

The United States signed an agreement with Ukraine this week to accelerate the co-production of Ukrainian weapons. But there's a long way to go before Ukraine has enough domestic armaments to fight the Russian military on its own.

Here's Nick Schifrin.

Nick Schifrin:

The Biden administration is struggling to get congressional approval for a $60 billion aid package for Ukraine, half of which would be for weapons sent to Ukraine, and to replenish U.S. stockpiles.

But, long term, both Washington and Kyiv want Ukraine to produce their own weapons, as President Zelenskyy's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said this week at a Washington summit.

Andriy Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine: Ukraine cannot and will not entirely depend on the foreign providers of the military aid. We must take care of our own defense capability. Moreover, we have our own weapons to be proud of.

Lloyd Austin, U.S. Secretary of Defense: That will mean strengthening Ukraine's defense industrial base, both to maintain Ukraine's current war effort and to bolster Ukraine's national strength and deterrence long into the future.

Nick Schifrin:

The Ukrainian minister in charge of Ukraine's domestic arms production effort is Alexander Kamyshin. And he joins me now.

Sir, thank you very much. Pleasure to have you on the "NewsHour."

As I started by saying, there is an effort right now in Washington here to continue the funding for Ukraine. We will get into the domestic arms production in a second.

But, in general, how important is U.S. aid to Ukraine going forward?

Alexander Kamyshin, Ukrainian Minister of Strategic Industries: Nick, actually, we withstand in the greatest war of generations.

We are working hard to ramp up local production, but we never would be able to cover the need of our armed forces alone, because, again, in such a war, no single nation can withstand alone. So, I'm sure that we will get the approval and get the aid.

Nick Schifrin:

The agreement you have signed here in Washington this week promises co-production of weapons and technology sharing. So what does that mean and how vital is that long term?

Alexander Kamyshin:

Here, we have a strong political signal coming from the leadership of the U.S. government that says that defense industry should look at the opportunity to start collaborating in Ukraine.

For me, it's important because I'm here to promote business opportunities for U.S. defense industry. We urgently need all the arms. But for U.S. companies, it's a great opportunity.

Nick Schifrin:

So that opportunity, let's talk about that.

You're trying to attract U.S. — American and also European companies to Ukraine. That makes sense. Of course, Ukraine needs it. But why does it make sense for American businesses to invest in Ukraine while the war is going on?

Alexander Kamyshin:

Ukraine gives an opportunity to shorten the innovation cycle.

We have proved that we can be good in defense tech, and that something — that lessons learned from our defense tech would be important for U.S. And second point, we have got great engineers. That's something you're going to find if you start your local production in Ukraine. And third point, it's a great opportunity to test your weapon and ammunition in the greatest war of generations and to make it better.

Nick Schifrin:

I think that everyone here in Washington and everyone in Kyiv would agree that this is a great idea and this sounds great, but how long will it take?

Alexander Kamyshin:

Building defense industry takes years. Everyone knows that.

We have got some quick wins and FrankenSAM portfolio of projects, how we call it.

Nick Schifrin:

FrankenSAM.

Alexander Kamyshin:

Yes.

Nick Schifrin:

This is the combination of different air defenses from the United States, from Europe, kind of Frankensteined together into Ukraine right now.

Alexander Kamyshin:

And that's something we already have on the ground on the battlefield in Ukraine.

That's something where U.S. defense industries, Ukrainian defense industry work together, together with U.S. and Ukrainian armed forces. And, finally, we get a fast solution, as we call it, do-it-yourself defense that already works.

Nick Schifrin:

It seems like one of the priorities that analysts I speak to say is that Ukraine needs to be able to attack inside Russia, try and bring the fight to Russia, whether that's supply lines or even to the Russian elite doorstep.

How important is it that Ukraine build its own long-range fires that can hit Russia?

Alexander Kamyshin:

We already got success with long-range missiles in Ukraine, but I would not speak more about that.

But we also got great success with defense tech, with drones that fly as far as reach Russia already. And you have probably seen that Moscow never sleeps, Sochi never sleeps, and many other Russian cities would not sleep quite soon.

Nick Schifrin:

Those, with all due respect, have been individual attacks. We're talking about a scale at which Ukraine builds drones or long-range fires that can affect Russian calculus, that can actually affect how Putin thinks about the threat from Ukraine.

Is that the goal?

Alexander Kamyshin:

Definitely.

And for Ukrainian defense tech, that's something where you see how we produce drones. So it's built up in the last half-year, definitely. And that's something that scales up fast enough, and that's something that is already delivering, and scale will be quite soon.

Nick Schifrin:

Is part of the challenge, though, that you need Ukraine to mobilize for war? We see in Russia for example factories going to three shifts a day.

The Russian economy has mobilized for war, but Ukraine's government has not mobilized the entire country. Why hasn't Ukraine mobilized its entire economy, like the United States did during World War II?

Alexander Kamyshin:

We are a democratic country. And, meanwhile, we find a way how we can live during the war, and our economy is fully switching to the wartime economy.

And we spent every single hryvnia of — that's local currency in Ukraine. We collect in the country. We spend it for the war. So it goes to the salaries of servicemen and to the acquisition.

Nick Schifrin:

But don't you acknowledge that the bottom line is that Russia has done more to mobilize its economy than Ukraine has? Does Kyiv need to do more to get even the workers that you will need in these factories to make sure that they're there so the factories run 24/7?

Alexander Kamyshin:

Major factories in defense industry already run 24/7. And, again, it's never enough. We understand it.

But, already, now, defense industry starts working, starts running. In my previous life on the railways, I have been repeating…

Nick Schifrin:

You're the old railways minister. You literally kept the trains running on time.

Alexander Kamyshin:

We keep running.

So, now we say that we start running, because, again, we have got strong legacy in defense industry. But let's be frank. It was abandoned for decades.

Nick Schifrin:

Right.

Alexander Kamyshin:

And now we start almost from the scratch.

Nick Schifrin:

Minister Alexander Kamyshin, thank you very much.

Alexander Kamyshin:

Thank you, Nick.