Oksana Parafeniuk for NPR
KYIV, Ukraine — Inside a chilly, nondescript warehouse somewhere in Ukraine, young mechanics in hoodies are assembling mortar launchers designed by Ukrainians.
“These are the bigger ones we make, 120 millimeters,” says a ginger-haired man named Bohdan, 31, who supervises mortar production for Ukrainian Armor Design and Manufacturing Co., a private arms company. “They look tiny but they can do a lot of damage to the enemy.”
Bohdan declined to give his last name for security reasons. NPR also isn’t disclosing the location of this factory. Russia often targets military facilities and infrastructure in Ukraine.
He says several hundred of these mortar launchers have been sent to the frontline. But Ukrainian troops need many more.
“Russia has always had more weapons,” he says.
As Russia’s war on Ukraine enters its third year, Ukrainians are facing a cold reality: Western support for Ukraine is flagging while Russia buys drones from Iran and, according to the U.S., ballistic missiles from North Korea.
Ukrainian Armor and other homegrown arms manufacturers are turning out weapons as fast as they can.
Vladyslav Belbas, the director-general of Ukrainian Armor, says production of mortars and armored vehicles has increased by at least 10 times since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Its biggest customer is the Ukrainian government, which went from one-off purchases before the war to long-term orders.
Oksana Parafeniuk for NPR
“So far we don’t have outside investors. The business concept we have at the moment is [to] reinvest our profit in the company, into an extension of production capabilities,” says Belbas, during an interview at Ukrainian Armor’s headquarters in a Kyiv high-rise.
Arms manufacturers scramble to increase production and develop new weapons
Weapons production in Ukraine began rising in 2014, when Russian military proxies invaded and occupied parts of eastern Ukraine as well as the southern peninsula of Crimea.
Since 2015, Ukrainian Armor has developed and produced two types of armored vehicles. Two years later, it also began manufacturing mortars of all calibers as well as ammunition for those mortars.
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