Ukraine has increased its production of mortar shells from zero before the Russian invasion to millions a year today, but a global shortage of explosives is holding back the arms industry's rise, a said Kiev's top arms official.
Ukraine is trying to reduce its heavy dependence on Western military aid. Mortar shells, which are cheaper and operate at shorter range than artillery, are an important weapon against the infantry-led assaults that Russia uses to advance in the east of the country.
Herman Smetanin, appointed in September as strategic industries minister responsible for overseeing wartime weapons production, told Reuters that Ukraine had increased production of various types of artillery and mortar shells.
“However, this is still not enough,” he said in his first published interview in kyiv as minister.
Mr Smetanin, aged just 32, was appointed after quickly rising through the ranks at Ukroboronprom, the state-owned defense industry giant, where he became head in June 2023.
He said Ukraine has the capacity to make more shells, but is being held back by global production bottlenecks and high demand that has led to a shortage of explosives.
“The only problem we face today is gunpowder and explosives. No matter how much explosives come to Ukraine, that's how many shells we will have.”
Since 2022, Ukraine has worked to develop almost every aspect of its national defense industry, while its troops are stretched across a 1,000 km front by a much larger enemy equipped with a military-industrial complex. much more important.
The production figures represent a rapid increase for a country that did not produce artillery or mortar ammunition before Russia's massive invasion.
According to Smetanin, Ukraine now produces its own artillery shells, including the coveted 155mm caliber used in heavy artillery pieces donated to Ukraine by NATO allies. He declined to provide figures.
Ukraine's shell production still lags far behind that of Russia, which has been investing heavily in its military for years under Vladimir Putin and also inherited vast production capacity dating back to the Cold War .
According to a CNN report in March, citing NATO estimates and an unnamed European official, Russia was able to produce 3 million rounds a year, nearly triple the combined capacity of the United States and of Europe.
Artillery, sometimes called the “king of battle”, was the most important product on the front for most of the war.
Ukrainian commanders told Reuters in early 2024 that they estimated that about 80% of the losses suffered by both sides since the start of the war had come from artillery.
Mr. Smetanin said one of his main goals was to expand mass production of Ukrainian missiles, although he admitted that this faced obstacles in the global supply chain, on which he did not go into detail.
Ukraine announced earlier this year that it had successfully used both its own ballistic missile and a “drone missile” called Palyanytsia, which the arms minister compared to a cruise missile.
