Ukraine produced more shells in June than it made in all of last year - Kamyshin

Ukraine's Minister of Strategic Industries Oleksandr Kamyshin said this in an interview with Bloomberg, Ukrinform reports.

However, he said, how many more shells Ukraine produced is a "secret."

"I wouldn't say that we were that great for managing to increase ammunition production in three months. We produced so little in 2022. […] We have to be ambitious, because we have no choice. My aim is to make Ukraine the arsenal of the free world," Kamyshin said.

He also noted that he had started with artillery and mortar shells because they are central to a fight he calls "World War II with drones."

According to the news outlet, now, domestic output of the ammunition is ramping up, if from a low base. Ukraine's Stugna-P anti-tank systems also started to roll off production lines faster.

According to the minister, boosting production of tanks and armored vehicles is the next priority, but will take 3-6 months to bear fruit.

In the longer term, Kamyshin wants to make the country an advanced weapons producer and use that expansion to power recovery in an economy that shrank by almost a third last year.

He is pitching foreign producers to come to wartime Ukraine, where costs are low, production facilities are being relocated and rebuilt within months, and they can use daily battlefield experience to upgrade their weapons.