“Ukraine will have more weapons and ammunition to defend itself, protect civilians and infrastructure from Russian attacks. We discussed ways to further bolster the German and Ukrainian defence industries alliance,” Kuleba wrote on X, formerly Twitter, following talks with Rheinmetall’s chief executive.
He did not provide specific details about topics discussed during the meeting. Ukraine has been fending off Russia’s full-scale invasion for more than 20 months with the help of Western weapons and financial aid.
Kiev plans to rebuild and modernize its own defence industry, which has been heavily affected by Russian attacks. Ukraine was one of the largest arms manufacturers in the world before the Russian invasion.
The meeting comes less than two weeks after it was announced Rheinmetall would join forces with Ukraine’s state-owned defence company Ukrainian Defence Industry (UDI) to repair and maintain Western-produced military vehicles and ultimately produce them domestically in Ukraine. The joint venture would focus on the maintenance and repair of vehicles transferred to Ukraine. As the next step, Rheinmetall wants to manufacture select products in Ukraine and even develop military systems by joint German-Ukrainian specialist teams further in the future.
