Zelensky: Government allocates additional funding for the missile program

Ukraine will increase funding for the missile program to increase the production of Ukrainian-made missiles.

President Volodymyr Zelensky stated this following the meeting of the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

The Minister of Defense, the Vice Prime Minister for Innovation, and the Minister for Strategic Industries outlined the current needs of the Ukrainian Defense Forces and the dynamics of drone and missile production by the Ukrainian defense industry.

“The Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief allocated additional funding for our missile program. There will be more missiles of our own production,” Zelensky said.

Two weeks earlier, the President said that Ukraine’s defense industry has made progress in developing Ukrainian-made missiles.

“Our missile program has good dynamics, and although it is a difficult task, we are gradually approaching the possibility of using our own missiles, and not just relying on supplies from partners. Ukraine should eventually reach maximum defense independence,” Zelensky said.

At the same time, the Ukrainian military has long been actively using modified Neptune cruise missiles to strike ground targets.

In particular, the General Staff has officially confirmed that these missiles hit an oil terminal in Krasnodar Krai. They were also used to strike the Saky military air base and hit the S-400 battery in Crimea. Wreckage of the missiles was also found in Taganrog.

It is likely that this could be a different missile project. It is known that the Ukrainian defense industry is working on a long-range version of Neptune.

Ukraine was developing the Hrim-2 operational and tactical missile system to engage single and group stationary targets at ranges between 50 and 280 km.

The Ukrainian defense industry is developing two projects of anti-aircraft missile systems. Oleksandr Kamyshin, Minister of Strategic Industry, announced this in July last year.

“We have several ongoing projects on which we have activated our work. Over the past month, two projects have undergone their first flight tests. Both were successful. Readiness is still a long way off, but we are doing everything to speed up the work,” Kamyshin wrote.