Not a single Ukrainian manufacturer has yet begun exporting weapons abroad

Despite statements that a mechanism for exporting Ukrainian weapons was launched last autumn, not a single Ukrainian manufacturer is currently selling weapons abroad.

This was stated by presidential adviser on strategic issues Oleksandr Kamyshin in an interview with Forbes.

According to him, in order to begin exports, a company must first obtain a relevant contract from a foreign government, but so far no one has received such a contract.

Kamyshin explained that the process of foreign governments purchasing Ukrainian weapons is much more complicated than it may seem. In particular, they need to amend military doctrines, conduct testing, and approve new procurement procedures.

“Take Poland, for example — it would have to decide: ‘We are no longer buying mortars, we are buying FPV drones instead.’ That completely breaks the old system,” Kamyshin said.

He suggested that such processes may take at least a year, which is why estimates of potential exports at the level of $2–3 billion already this year are overstated.

At the same time, the presidential adviser acknowledged that in 2026 Ukraine is capable of producing $50 billion worth of weapons, but actual orders do not exceed $15 billion.

“Our capabilities significantly exceed procurement capacity. We have even stopped counting them,” he noted.

As previously reported, in November of last year, the National Security and Defense Council said that Ukraine was restoring a full-fledged mechanism for exporting its own weapons. Manufacturers with surplus capacity were allowed to sell products to foreign partners, provided there is full state control.

In February 2026, NSDC Secretary Rustem Umerov said that Ukraine had begun restoring controlled arms exports: after an eight-month pause, the interagency commission on military-technical cooperation policy and export control held a meeting and issued the first permits to defense-industry enterprises.

The NSDC had predicted that Ukraine could reach military exports worth several billion dollars this year.

It is worth recalling that after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine banned exports of military goods in order to ensure that its own army had everything it needed. However, in 2024 the possibility of lifting that ban was allowed.

In the summer, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukrainian weapons could be exported in a controlled way through production lines located abroad.