Kyiv considers that the top priority for long term defense cooperation with western partners is not direct purchase of arms in the west, but technological and industrial cooperation, creation of new samples of arms and equipment in Ukraine, Director of the League of Defense Enterprises of Ukraine and Director of the Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies (CACDS) Valentyn Badrak said at the presentation in the Institute of World Policy in Kyiv on Tuesday.

He said that in the conditions of the hybrid war launched against Ukraine the country's western allies have problems with seeing top priorities of the Ukrainian defense sector and defense cooperation with Kyiv. This should be explained.

"We need that western partners clearly understand that direct exports of arms to Ukraine is not the best idea," Badrak said, adding that along with restrictions in western exports legislation restraint of Ukrainian authorities in the issue should be taken into account.

He said that Kyiv have fears that too large imports of defense products during the launched re-equipment of the Armed Forces could be a threat for Ukrainian defense enterprises.

"Earlier defense cooperation of Ukraine was exports, today this is imports… We do not need purchases, but bilateral projects using technologies from abroad and creation of production facilities in Ukraine," he said.

Badrak said that at the current stage with support of the West and in the condition of external aggression, there are no conditions in Ukraine for attracting investment in defense industry and implementing technological and industrial opportunities of defense cooperation, including on the foreign markets. He said that a trend of removing production facilities by private defense companies in Ukraine abroad is seen and Ukrainian sensitive technologies are leaking to other countries.