Latest news with #weaponsproduction
Reuters
6 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Ukraine's new prime minister announces full audit of public spending
KYIV, July 17 (Reuters) - Ukraine's newly appointed Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said on Thursday that her government would be launching a full audit of public finances to achieve "real savings", and that large-scale privatisations should be accelerated. Svyrydenko, who was voted in by parliament earlier in the day, said on X that her priorities in the role would be to ensure reliable supplies to the army and to expand domestic weapons production.
Reuters
14-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Ukraine's Zelenskiy taps deputy PM Svyrydenko for prime minister
KYIV, July 14 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy asked First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko on Monday to lead a new government, setting the stage for a political reshuffle as prospects for an end to Ukraine's war with Russia grow dim. The nomination, which requires parliamentary approval, comes as diplomatic efforts to end the war, now in its fourth year, have stalled and as Ukraine seeks to revive its cash-strapped economy and build up a domestic arms industry. "We ... discussed concrete measures to boost Ukraine's economic potential, expand support programs for Ukrainians, and scale up our domestic weapons production," Zelenskiy wrote on X. "In pursuit of this goal, we are initiating a transformation of the executive branch in Ukraine," he said, adding that he had proposed that Svyrydenko lead the government and "significantly renew its work". Svyrydenko, 39, is an economist by training and has served as first deputy prime minister since 2021. She played a key role in recent negotiations for a minerals deal with the United States. Ukraine relies on financial aid from its Western allies to finance social and humanitarian spending as the bulk of state revenues go to fund the army and domestic weapons production. Ukrainian officials have also urged Kyiv's partners to help finance the country's arms industry, including through joint defence projects. Writing on X, Svyrydenko said she would pursue deregulation, cut back bureaucracy, protect business and reduce non-critical expenditure to achieve the "full concentration of state resources" for defence and post-war recovery. "The state apparatus has no right to waste the resources and potential of our country," she said. "Ukraine deserves to be among the strongest economies in Europe." Ukraine's current prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, has held the post since March 2020, making him the longest-serving head of government since the country gained its independence from Moscow in 1991 amid the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The Guardian
12-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Ukraine war briefing: US resumes military supplies to Ukraine, Zelenskyy announces
The US has resumed military supplies to Ukraine and senior officials in Kyiv will work on military cooperation next week with Washington's special envoy, Keith Kellogg, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Friday. He restated that Ukraine had received high-level signals from Washington and its other western allies that arms supplies, paused for a time last week, had now resumed. 'We are currently working with partners on new supplies, increased weapons production in Ukraine and better support for our army,' he said. 'Next week, we will continue working with the US side on a military level … We are also preparing new European defence packages.' Kellogg, interviewed by the Ukrainian media outlet while attending a conference about Ukraine in Rome, said: 'We'll be in Kyiv Monday. We'll be there all week.' Donald Trump confirmed he had struck a deal with Nato leaders to supply weapons to Ukraine, Andrew Roth writes. During an interview with NBC News, the US president said: 'So what we're doing is the weapons that are going out are going to Nato, and then Nato is going to be giving those weapons [to Ukraine], and Nato is paying for those weapons.' He added: 'I'm disappointed in Russia, but we'll see what happens over the next couple of weeks.' The EU's top diplomat has said the 27-nation bloc was pondering a new raft of sanctions against Moscow. 'Russia has increased its attacks against civilians to really cause as much pain … and that's unacceptable,' the EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said. Brussels was considering an 18th round of sanctions against Moscow and 'we are also still in negotiations to put the oil price cap on, that would deprive Russia from the means to fund this war', she told AFP. Kallas said she was assured by Laos's top diplomat that Vientiane had 'no intention or willingness' to send military help to Russia, following claims that Moscow was planning to involve military personnel from Laos to bolster its efforts in Ukraine. 'I also expressed that it has consequences for European aid to Laos if something like this is happening,' Kallas said. 'If you [Laos] contribute to that existential threat, we can't have good cooperation,' she warned. Ukrainian drone and shelling attacks killed three people in Russia on Friday. Russian air defence systems intercepted 155 Ukrainian drones overnight, Moscow said. There was one dead in Russia's Lipetsk region and another was killed in the western Tula region from the drone attacks, local officials said. Ukrainian shelling later killed another civilian in the border region of Belgorod, the governor announced. The Russian defence ministry said out of the 155 downed Ukrainian drones, 11 were bound for Moscow. Ukraine said its drones struck a Russian fighter aircraft plant in the Moscow region and a missile production facility in the Tula region, causing explosions and fires at both. Ukraine's military said on Telegram the aviation facility in the town of Lukhovitsy, about 135km (84 miles) south-east of Moscow, produced MiG fighters. The other site was the Instrument Design Bureau, which specialised in producing anti-aircraft missiles and missile-gun systems, it said. 'Defence forces continue to take all steps to undermine the military and economic potential of the Russian occupiers,' the military said. Russian bombardments on eastern Ukraine overnight on Friday forced the evacuation of a maternity centre in Kharkiv and wounded nine people. Zelenskyy said a medical facility was hit in the attack on the country's second-largest city. 'Among the wounded are women in a maternity hospital – mothers with newborns, women recovering from surgery,' he wrote on social media. 'Fortunately, no children were injured.' He added that several other regions were attacked overnight. Nato will need more long-range missiles in its arsenal to deter Russia from attacking Europe because Moscow is expected to increase production of long-range weapons, a US army general told Reuters. 'The Russian army is bigger today than it was when they started the war in Ukraine,' Maj Gen John Rafferty said at a US military base in Wiesbaden, Germany. 'And we know that they're going to continue to invest in long-range rockets and missiles and sophisticated air defences. So more alliance capability is really, really important.' The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that wartime censorship in Russia is justified amid the conflict with Ukraine and the closure of opposition-minded media. Speaking to Russian magazine Expert, Peskov said that many media outlets have been closed, while some reporters have left the country in the past three years. 'But don't forget the situation we are in. Now is the time of military censorship, unprecedented for our country. After all, the war is going on in the information space too,' Peskov told the magazine. Russian authorities also blocked X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. 'It would be wrong to turn a blind eye to the media that are deliberately engaged in discrediting Russia,' he said.
Al Jazeera
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
US sending special envoy after weapons deliveries resumed, says Ukraine
The United States is once again delivering military supplies to Ukraine and will also be sending its special envoy, Keith Kellogg, to Kyiv next week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. In his nightly address on Friday evening, Ukraine's leader said that US aid shipments had been restored, following the Pentagon's decision to briefly halt the delivery of certain weapons to Kyiv. 'We have received political signals at the highest level – good signals – including from the United States, from our European friends,' he said. Zelenskyy added that his country was working with its allies 'on new supplies, increased weapons production in Ukraine and better support for our army'. 'Next week, we will continue working with the US side on a military level, including between our military and General Kellogg,' he said. At the start of July, the Trump administration paused shipments of weapons to Ukraine, including air defence missiles, over fears that its own stockpiles were dwindling. The halt coincided with a spike in Russia's aerial bombardment of Ukraine, with Moscow's military firing 728 drones and 13 missiles against it on Wednesday, the largest daily total in more than three years of war. The US military aid pause also came as Ukraine suffered its highest number of monthly civilian casualties in the entire war. In June, 232 people were killed and 1,343 injured, according to the human rights mission in Ukraine. After announcing earlier this week that the US would resume shipments to Kyiv, US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that his country was sending weapons to NATO, which could then be sent on to Ukraine by its member states. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed on Friday that European nations could give some of their military supplies to Kyiv and order replacements from the US. 'It's a lot faster to move something, for example, from Germany to Ukraine than it is to order it from a [US] factory and get it there,' Rubio said during a visit to Malaysia. Meanwhile, on the front line, the Russian military struck Ukraine's southern port city of Odesa on Friday morning, injuring at least eight people, according to Ukrainian local officials. Overnight Russian attacks on eastern Ukraine also injured nine and forced the evacuation of a maternity centre in Kharkiv, President Zelenskyy said. Drone attacks, shelling Meanwhile, Russian officials noted that Ukrainian drone and shelling attacks had killed three people in the Russian regions of Belgorod, Lipetsk and Tula on Friday. The Ukrainian military said on Telegram that it had targeted a Russian fighter aircraft plant in the Moscow region and a missile production facility in the Tula region on Friday. Both drone attacks caused explosions and fires, Ukraine added. The US's decision to resume aid deliveries to Ukraine comes as Trump has signalled a growing impatience with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Amid an apparent thaw in relations, Rubio met his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Malaysia on Friday. 'We are talking, and that is a start,' Rubio said. Lavrov later travelled to North Korea to hold talks. Pyongyang has been an important backer of Moscow, sending thousands of troops to Russia to help it in its war against Ukraine.
South China Morning Post
02-07-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Ukraine looks to jointly produce weapons with allies amid US arms freeze
Ukraine is forging ahead with early plans for joint weapons production with some international allies, top officials said, while warning on Wednesday of potential consequences of the US decision to halt some arms shipments promised to help Kyiv fight off Russia's invasion. Advertisement 'Any delay or hesitation in supporting Ukraine's defence capabilities will only encourage the aggressor to continue war and terror, not seek peace,' Ukraine's foreign ministry said. A renewed Russian push to capture more land has put Ukraine's short-handed defences under severe strain in the all-out war launched by Moscow nearly 3½ years ago. Russian missiles and drones are battering Ukrainian cities. US-led diplomatic efforts to find a peace settlement have stalled. Ukraine's defence ministry said it had not received any official US notification of a suspension or revision of agreed arms delivery schedules. Officials have requested a phone call with their US counterparts to verify the status of specific items in the pipeline, it said in a statement. As Washington – Ukraine's biggest military backer – has distanced itself from Ukraine's war efforts under US President Donald Trump, a bigger onus has fallen on European countries. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi visit an exhibition of new Ukrainian-made drone missiles in Kyiv in December. Photo: Reuters French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday held their first direct telephone call in almost three years. Macron's office said that during their two-hour conversation, the French leader underlined France's 'unwavering support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity' and called for a ceasefire.
