Main points
- Kyrylo Budanov spoke about the production of drones in Ukraine, noting that the component base is not Ukrainian.
- Budanov emphasized the need to create a full production cycle in Ukraine, as the country currently depends on external suppliers of components.
Budanov spoke sharply about the production of drones in Ukraine / Collage of Channel 24
Head of the Presidential Office Kirill Budanov unexpectedly expressed skepticism about the production of drones in Ukraine. He also mentioned missiles and tanks.
Budanov's statement was made during a meeting with the CEO Club community. The head of the OP returned to the topic of neo-industrialization several times during his communication with business representatives.
What did Budanov say about drones?
According to Budanov, Ukraine will not be able to exist as an underdeveloped agrarian state or a raw material state after the war. After all, energy capacities have been destroyed. Therefore, we must look towards neo-industrialization or re-industrialization – moving away from the raw material structure of the economy, moving towards the processing of raw materials and the production of products.
Context. Neo-industrialization refers to the revival of industrial production. Reindustrialization, on the other hand, is the transition from the industrial base of production to its new technological foundations, that is, the transition of production to a more progressive path of development using high technologies, information technology, biotechnology, new materials and energy sources, etc.
At the same time, not all industrial sectors can be revived. For example, microelectronics must be created in Ukraine.
All our super-defense technologies, drones, and so on, but whose element base is it? What's Ukrainian about it? Even the 3D printer, on which most of the parts are made, is not ours either. And the filling in it is not ours. We are users, nothing more,
– Budanov emphasized.
Budanov's statement about drones: watch the video from 36:54
He recalled that Ukraine was once a tank-building country, but during a full-scale war, no tanks were produced.
Reference. In Ukraine, the only tank manufacturer was the Kharkiv Armored Cluster, which included the Morozov Design Bureau and the Malyshev Plant. Until 1987, they produced T-64 series tanks there. Then production was reoriented to the production of the promising Soviet main battle tank T-80UD. In 1996, a contract was signed for the supply of 320 T-80UD tanks to Pakistan. The first machine rolled off the assembly line in 1997, and the order was finally closed in 1999. Later, the Oplot tanks (serially produced since 2013, exported to Thailand) and Bulat (later modernized) were produced.
Currently, rocketry is being developed in Ukraine, but, as the head of the OP noted, there are serious nuances.
Element base. They simply don't sell us certain components and units. And our allies don't sell them, I'm telling you this straight away. And we lost the ability to produce our own just 20 years ago. By the way, we used to be able to do it, but then we lost it. Now, until we make our own, first of all, guidance systems, we will have serious problems. Orientation and guidance are an unresolved issue,
– explained Budanov.
He added: since Ukraine does not produce all the components itself, the state depends on external partners who can terminate the contract at any time. Thus, we should rely only on ourselves and create a full production cycle in Ukraine.
This is not Budanov's first statement about the need for reindustrialization.
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On February 16, the head of the President's Office said: Ukraine needs neo-industrialization. This was also Budanov's meeting with business representatives.
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He spoke about the need for a strong economy and that the state must have access to modern technologies and a highly skilled workforce.
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“Back in the early 1990s, Ukraine was among the top ten world countries with the best economic indicators. However, decades of corruption and inefficient management, 13 years of total war have undermined our industrial power. We must restore our capacities. This is a matter of the survival of the nation and the state,” the official said.
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In November 2024, Kyrylo Budanov commented on the investigation by the “Schemes” project (Radio Liberty) about how Ukraine transferred strategic bombers and missiles to Russia in the 1990s. “Corruption, incompetence, and lack of strategic vision lead to anti-state decisions,” he wrote at the time.