07.11.2019, Kharkov.
The Malyshev Kharkov Plant produced one tank over the last ten years, while in the Soviet period it produced 900 tanks yearly, and this is a shocking situation, the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky said on November 6 during his working visit to Kharkov.
“I am shocked with the statistics,” Zelensky said, referring to the information provided by the director of the Kharkov plant about its condition. As the main reasons of the low production rate he pointed out low salaries, high debts to workers, and freezing temperatures in the production facilities.
“We treat people like cattle, and then we expect them to work,” the president said. The Kharkov plant is only an example demonstrating the critically low production rates in the Ukrainian defense industry.
In late October, Kiev said that the Ukrainian defense budget was being spent inefficiently. It was pointed out that the war in Donbass is not a war of tanks and armored infantry vehicles, but it is a war of air power, electronic warfare, air defense, and reconnaissance. The forces that “Russia is using against us,” the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Sergey Krivonos said.
Ukraine’s 2020 defense budget is planned at 5.4% of the GDP.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
