Top U.S. defense firm eyes Ukraine weapons plant, casting doubt on claims that Joe Biden will force Kyiv to the negotiating table with Russia
Top defense company General Dynamics, a major contractor for the US military, plans to open a new weapons factory in western Ukraine, DailyMail.com reports.
It means American taxpayers are about to hand out more money to the US defense sector in the form of multi-million dollar deals to make weapons for Ukraine if a funding row in Congress can be resolved.
Three sources familiar with the Virginia-based company's plans said the company will increase domestic production of arms supplies amid concerns about Kiev's counteroffensive to drive Russian forces out of the occupied territories.
Last month, a proposal was drawn up and sent to the Ukrainian government to set up a production facility within six months in the west of the country, which has been largely unscathed by Vladimir Putin's brutal invasion.
The revelations also appear to cast doubt on recent reports in German media that the US and Germany are working on a secret plan to force Ukraine to the negotiating table and end the war.
Zelensky canceled a speech in the US Senate on Tuesday where he was due to call on Congress to approve more aid to Ukraine. His chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said there was a “high risk” of a Ukrainian defeat without American support.
The company, one of the main suppliers to the US military, is also unperturbed by the possibility of Donald Trump winning November's presidential election.
“It means we're going to be in this for the long haul one way or another,” said one source, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the plans.
A Ukraine-based official said other major U.S. defense companies could follow suit and set up local production to send weapons to the front lines.
'It is not just General Dynamics that is considering setting up a company in Ukraine. It will be a trend for years to come,” the source said
DailyMail.com understands that the facility will largely focus on the production of 155-millimeter shells, a NATO-standard artillery shell, which has been crucial to the Ukrainian fight against Russia.
Moscow currently produces about one million artillery shells per year; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky complained last month that ammunition deliveries from his allies had been “delayed.”
Zelensky unexpectedly canceled a speech to the US Senate on Tuesday, where he would have called for new aid for the war in Ukraine.
The 155mm grenades can be packed with highly explosive material, use precision guidance systems, penetrate armor or cause high fragmentation.
Past variants have included smoke rounds to obscure troop movements and illumination rounds to reveal an enemy's position.
They are fired by the Ukrainian military at a rate of 6,000 to 8,000 rounds per day, according to Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandra Ustinova, who is a member of Ukraine's wartime monitoring committee.
It comes as senior US and Ukrainian government officials, including Zelensky's chief of staff Andriy Yermak, meet in Washington on December 6 and 7 with major industry figures to rebuild the war-torn country's defense sector.
But Antone Voronin, deputy director of the Ukrainian government-owned defense company Spets, said in September that the country would have to secure new financing from abroad.
“If we can find new investors, they can give us the opportunity to build factories outside the country and within the country,” he said. “Then our facilities grow, our production grows and that contributes to the supply of the Ministry of Defense.
General Dynamics also produces other weapons supplied to Ukraine.
They include the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS), which are rockets with a 45-mile range packed with cluster bombs, and combat vehicles such as Stryker and Abrams tanks.
The US has also given Abrams battle tanks, seen here during a joint military training exercise with NATO members Bulgaria and Georgia, to Ukraine
Ukrainian soldiers fire with a French self-propelled cannon of 155 mm / 52 caliber Caesar towards Russian positions on the front line of the Donbas
The company recently reported record sales of more than $10 billion, boosted by demand from Ukraine's counteroffensive.
Demand for 155mm artillery shells has skyrocketed in the wake of the Russian invasion.
The Allies' supplies for their own defense have been depleted as they rushed grenades to Kiev.
The US plans to increase monthly production of 155-millimeter artillery shells to 100,000 by 2025.
Artillery has been a major pressure point in Ukraine to date, doing everything we can to support our (U.S.) military customer,” General Dynamics Chief Financial Officer Jason Aiken said at the time.
A company spokeswoman declined to be briefed on the location or cost of the planned facility and referred DailyMail.com's questions to the U.S. military.
The Pentagon has not yet responded to this medium's request for comment.
The developments also come as US lawmakers bicker over whether to sign a $105 billion aid package for Ukraine and Israel.
Republicans have so far refused to support the Biden administration's request, arguing that any additional resources for Ukraine should be tied to stricter new border measures.
Biden's funding request also calls for ramping up production to replenish supplies already given to the Ukrainian military, potentially boosting employment in the United States.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, the US Congress has approved and appropriated more than $110 billion in military and economic aid to Kiev.
However, US officials have been warning for months that most of that money has already been distributed.
The Biden administration urges Congress to sign new Ukraine aid package that also includes security aid to Israel
The Ukrainian army's counter-offensive has stagnated in recent months. Officials in Kiev blame slow supplies of Western weapons for the recent lack of progress.
The long-running row over funding comes as Kiev's long-awaited counter-offensive in the south appears to have stalled, with Ukrainian officials blaming the slow progress on the speed of Western arms deliveries.
Ukrainian forces are also struggling to hold their position on the eastern bank of the vast Dnipro River.
Meanwhile, defense and military intelligence officials in Ukraine have accused Russian forces of killing their own wounded soldiers to prevent them from surrendering to Ukrainian forces.
“The fact is that the Russians do not allow their soldiers to surrender,” Oleksandr Stupun, a spokesman for Ukraine's Tauride forces, said during a television interview on Monday.
“There have even been cases where Russian drones have killed their own wounded,” he said, according to the Kyiv Post.
Andriy Yusov, a representative of Ukraine's military intelligence, said such incidents have been recorded several times, including in images taken by Ukraine's own drones.
Russia has killed its own soldiers as “a response to the fact that there are quite a few people willing to surrender to Ukrainian captivity,” he said.