The European Peace Fund may compensate for the purchase of Ukrainian-made weapons for Ukraine

EU countries will be able to purchase Ukrainian-made weapons for Ukraine with funds from the European Peace Fund. Oleksandr Kamyshin, Minister of Strategic Industries, announced this, following the DFNC1: EU Edition Defense Industries Forum. During the international event, the possibility of using the European Peace Fund to compensate EU member states for the costs of purchasing weapons for the Defense Forces from Ukrainian manufacturers was confirmed to Ukraine.

Currently, the resources from this fund already compensate EU countries for the supply of systems and weapons of their own production in the interests of Ukraine, but this is the first time that Ukrainian companies will appear on these lists. Attracting Western funding for the production of Ukrainian-made weapons is extremely important at the moment, as the state is unable to buy all the products that the Ukrainian defense industry can produce. According to Kamyshin, the gap between the production capacity of the Ukrainian defense industry and the country's budget is currently £10 billion.

Oleksandr Kamyshin, Minister for Strategic Industries, at the #DFNC1: EU Edition

Alternative sources of funding

During the event, the EU officials also discussed a project to use the proceeds of frozen Russian assets to finance Ukrainian defense orders.

"We discussed in detail the mechanism of using the proceeds from frozen Russian assets and the Peace Fund to finance Ukrainian defense directly or through any of the member states. The decision is not yet final, but if approved, this money can be quickly used to purchase Ukrainian weapons," Kamyshin stated. Later, in Brussels, Christian Wiegand, the spokesman for the European Commission, noted that Ukraine would be able to use the first funds from such revenues by the summer of this year, provided a quick decision is made.

"The new proposal assumes that these revenues will be used to support Ukraine with an immediate focus on procurement financing of military equipment and (in the medium and long term) for recovery and reconstruction. This proposal is currently under discussion. We hope for a quick agreement among member states so that the first payments can be made by the summer," Wiegand said.

Zbroyari: Manufacturing Freedom

To cover the aforementioned "gap," the Ukrainian government also offered its partners a short-term solution, namely the Zbroyari: Manufacturing Freedom initiative.

The plan is to raise £10 billion in direct defense orders from partner countries.

The countries have ordered unmanned systems, ammunition, and other weapons from Ukrainian manufacturers for the Ukrainian Defense Forces.