Slowly, Ukraine is developing an increasingly advanced arms industry in the heat of the war with Russia. President Volodymyr Zelensky Ukraine announced a successful test of Ukraine’s first locally manufactured ballistic missile. While the leader did not provide details of the new weapon, the development of a ballistic missile marks an important milestone for the country. It is not yet clear what stage of development the weapon is in or when it might be used against Russia. The announcement comes three days after the Ukrainian military deployed a new drone missile known as the Pallianytsia.
This announcement reveals Ukraine’s growing ability to independently design and deploy advanced weaponry. In late 2023, the Ministry of Defence stated that local industry planned to produce missiles with a range of 1,000 km by 2024, in a project financed exclusively with Ukrainian money and implemented by Ukrainian industry.
Until now, kyiv had the Soviet-era Tochka tactical ballistic missilewith a range of 120 kilometers and with lower precision. The local arms industry has also developed the Hrim-2, also known as Grim-2, Grom-2, Thunder or OTRK Sapsan. This is a short-range ballistic missile system developed to replace the Tochka-U missiles, Army Recognition says, explaining that it is designed to evade anti-aircraft defense systems, including the powerful Russian S-300 and S-400 platforms.
Despite these advances, kyiv still relies heavily on Western financial aid for its defense. This is partly due to a lack of funds for large-scale domestic production, Zelensky said. Currently, only a few countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark and Canada provide direct funding to Ukrainian arms manufacturers to produce weapons for the military.