11:22 04.03.2019

Ukroboronprom ensures import substitution of Russian components by 70% – concern head

2 min read
Ukroboronprom ensures import substitution of Russian components by 70% – concern head

The program on import substitution of Russian components in defense industry initiated by the Ukroboronprom state concern in the conditions of breaking off defense cooperation with Russia due to the annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas, has been implemented by 70% today, Ukroboronprom Head Pavlo Bukin has said.

Answering on the Pryamiy TV channel the question about the current degree of dependence of the Ukrainian defense industry on Russian components in the context of the Nashi Groshi TV project that received a wide political and public response about the corruption procurement of smuggled Russian components through the middleman firms of the Ukroboronprom's armored factories in 2015-2017, Bukin said: "We still need components from the Russian Federation, though we need them fewer... If we speak in numbers, 70% dependence [of the defense industry on Russian components] has already been overcome."

He said that today, the Ukrainian defense and industrial complex is still dependent on the supply of critical imports of Russian components, primarily for military aircraft available in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. "The most critical areas remain: this is aviation," he said, adding that no import substitution takes place quickly.

Bukin said that Ukraine has excess capacities for the military and industrial complex for the domestic defense market and today the country successfully cooperates with 70 countries. "They [Russian components] are needed to fulfill critical export contracts, on which the flow of currency depends," he said.

The head of Ukroboronprom recalled that in order to solve the problems of import substitution, Ukroboronprom together with the Economic Development and Trade Ministry have created an import substitution catalog.

At the same time, Bukin said that the centralized procurement system initiated by the defense sector in the country for the needs of the defense industry of the critical import of Russian components through the so-called military sector grey sites is currently being coordinated in view of the long-term challenges of the defense capability of Ukraine in the new geopolitical situation.

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