Ukraine's defence industry has reached annual production capacity of about $55bn and can turn a development project around in 3-6 months, the defence ministry told delegations from Nato member states on September 9.

The figure was given by Deputy Defence Minister for European Integration Sergiy Boyev at a meeting of the Ukraine-Nato Interparliamentary Council, where the ministry briefed parliamentarians on procurement reform and the state of the industry. A few years ago most of those companies were startups, Boyev said.

Production and development is accelerating, the ministry said. More than 1,300 new Ukrainian weapons and equipment models were authorised for operational use in 2025 alone, and new technologies are introduced every three to six months against an innovation cycle of 10 to 15 years in Nato countries. "Ukraine has learned to adapt faster than traditional defence systems," Boyev said.

Capacity is not the same as orders, and the gap is the reason the ministry was talking to legislators rather than to generals. Domestic contracts covered only about a third of what the industry could build last year, and Ukraine faces a shortfall of roughly $23bn against its 2026 defence needs, Euromaidan Press reported in July. Production capacity has grown from around $1bn at the start of the full-scale invasion to about $35bn last year.

The mechanism Boyev credits for the speed is a direct line between the soldier and the manufacturer. Brigades hold their own procurement budgets and assess suppliers themselves, and a company that does not act on feedback loses the next contract. "Under the new procurement rules, 80% of the budget goes to those who have learned to deliver results. If you don't improve your product, you lose immediately," he said.

The second half of the pitch was about corruption, which is what determines whether European money is allowed to flow into Ukrainian factories. Deputy Defence Minister Mstyslav Banik told the meeting that the ministry is opening up its procurement mechanisms to eliminate shadow schemes and behind-the-scenes influence, set fair rules for suppliers and cut corruption risk, and that the first competitive tenders are working.

"Our partners see this, we are open to any questions or requests they may have and always provide them with all the information," Banik said. "This is also important to ensure that we can continue receiving assistance." The work is being done under the Nato-Ukraine Strategic Defense Procurement Review and recommendations agreed by the alliance's defence and security sector committee.

The timing is set by the alliance's own spending. Nato's declaration commits members to 5% of GDP on defence and provides $50bn for new procurement and faster innovation, and Boyev's argument is that Ukrainian manufacturers, who are designing against a live threat, should be inside that programme rather than outside it. He pointed to Build with Ukraine, Drone Deals, the European Defence Industry Programme and the European Defence Fund as the existing routes. At the same meeting the ministry called on Nato parliamentarians to speed up assistance and invest in Ukrainian defence production.

Some of that is already happening on other countries' soil. Denmark, Germany and the Baltic states pay to manufacture Ukrainian designs at home, which puts the production lines out of Russian missile range, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has authorised controlled exports of categories where output runs well beyond what Ukraine can use or fund, with the revenue recycled into domestic production.

Boyev is also acting head of Ukroboronprom, the state defence conglomerate, following the resignation of Herman Smetanin after the Vyshneve ammunition depot blast. The industry he is describing to Nato legislators is one whose main constraint is now money rather than capacity, and the request behind the briefing is that the alliance close the difference.