Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that he was shocked with information that since 2009, the Malyshev Plant has made only one tank for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

"I am shocked to learn statistics. The director of the plant told us that since 2009, we have built one tank for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The statistics shows that in Soviet times there were 900 tanks a year," he said at a meeting devoted to problematic issues of operations of the Ukroboronprom state concern held in Kharkiv on Wednesday.

Zelensky said that the plants of the defense industry have wage arrears for the period of of up to four years, while the level of wages is very low, and in winter people work indoors at zero temperature.

The president said that the prime minister of Ukraine should convene the meeting of the entire Cabinet of Ministers and representatives of law enforcement agencies on this issue.

"So that we understand who our customer is, why and how many tanks [we are manufacturing], why we are manufacturing them for someone, for Thailand, but not for Ukraine. Why do we have fine planes, excellent designers, only we produce nothing and nothing is flying?" he said.

SOE Malyshev Plant is a world famous Ukrainian manufacturer of armored vehicles, one of the leading enterprises of the national armored industry. Since January 2011, by decision of the government, it has been part of Ukroboronprom concern and it is the core enterprise of the armored cluster of the concern, uniting about 20 enterprises of the armored industry. Among the largest export partners of the plant in recent years are Pakistan, China, and Thailand.