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
Leading defense firm General Dynamics, a major contractor for the US military, plans to open a new weapons plant in western Ukraine, DailyMail.com reports.
That means American taxpayers are set to pump more money into the U.S. defense sector in the form of multimillion-dollar arms deals for Ukraine if the funding dispute in Congress can be resolved.
Three sources familiar with the Virginia-based company’s plans said the company will ramp up domestic production of arms supplies amid concerns about Kyiv’s weakening counteroffensive to push Russian forces out of occupied territories.
Last month, a proposal was drawn up and sent to the Ukrainian government to set up a manufacturing facility in the west of the country within the next six months, largely unscathed by Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion.
The revelations also appear to cast doubt on recent German media reports that the US and Germany are working on a secret plan to force Ukraine to the negotiating table and end the war.
On Tuesday, Zelensky canceled a speech in the US Senate in which he was supposed to call on Congress to approve increased aid to Ukraine. His chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said there was a “great risk” of Ukraine’s defeat without U.S. support.
The firm, a major supplier to the US military, is also not concerned about the possibility of Donald Trump winning the presidential election in November.
“That means we’re going to be in this for the long haul, one way or another,” said one of the sources, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the plans.
The Ukrainian official said other major U.S. defense companies could follow suit and set up local production to send weapons to the front lines.
“Not only General Dynamics is considering the possibility of creating an enterprise in Ukraine. This will be the trend for the next few years,” the source said.
DailyMail.com understands that the facility will mainly focus on the production of 155mm shells, the NATO-standard artillery shells that have played a key role in Ukraine’s fight against Russia.
Moscow currently produces about a million artillery shells a day; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky complained last month that ammunition supplies from his allies had “slowed down.”
Zelensky unexpectedly canceled an address to the US Senate on Tuesday in which he was expected to seek new help for the war in Ukraine.
155mm projectiles can be filled with highly explosive material, use high-precision guidance systems, penetrate armor or create high fragmentation capacity.
Previous options included smoke shells to conceal troop movements and flare shells to expose enemy positions.
According to Ukrainian lawmaker Alexandra Ustinova, who serves on the Ukrainian Wartime Oversight Committee, the Ukrainian military is firing at them at a rate of 6,000 to 8,000 rounds per day.
It comes as senior U.S. and Ukrainian government officials, including Zelensky’s chief of staff Andrei Yermak, are meeting with industry majors in Washington on Dec. 6 and 7 to rebuild the war-torn country’s defense sector.
But Anton Voronin, deputy director of the Ukrainian state defense company Spets, said in September that to do this the country needs to attract new funding from abroad.
“If we can attract new investors, they will give us the opportunity to build factories outside the country and within the country,” he said. “Then our capacity grows, our production grows, and that helps supply the Department of Defense.
General Dynamics also produces other weapons that have been supplied to Ukraine.
These include the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS), which are 45-mile-range missiles armed with cluster bombs, combat vehicles such as Stryker and Abrams tanks.
The US also gave Ukraine Abrams battle tanks, which can be seen here during joint military exercises with NATO members Bulgaria and Georgia.
Ukrainian military personnel fired at Russian positions on the Donbass front line from a French 155 mm/52 caliber Caesar self-propelled artillery mount.
The company recently reported record quarterly revenue of more than $10 billion, boosted by demand from the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Demand for 155mm artillery shells increased sharply after the Russian invasion.
Allied supplies for their own defense were depleted as they threw shells at Kyiv.
The US plans to increase monthly production of 155mm artillery shells to 100,000 in 2025.
Artillery “has been a big pressure point so far in the relationship with Ukraine, and we’ve been doing everything we can to support our U.S. Army customer,” Jason Aiken, General Dynamics’ chief financial officer, said at the time.
A spokeswoman for the firm declined to disclose the location or cost of the planned facility, referring DailyMail.com’s queries to the US military.
The Pentagon has not yet responded to this publication’s request for comment.
The developments also come as U.S. lawmakers debate 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 funds for Ukraine must be tied to new, tougher border measures.
Biden’s funding request also calls for increased production to replenish supplies that have already been given to the Ukrainian military, potentially leading to more jobs in the United States.
Since the war in Ukraine began in February 2022, the US Congress has approved and allocated more than $110 billion (£87 billion) in military and economic aid to Kyiv.
But U.S. officials have been warning for months that much of that money has already been distributed.
The Biden administration is pushing Congress to sign a new aid package for Ukraine that also includes security assistance for Israel.
The Ukrainian military’s counter-offensive has stalled in recent months. Officials in Kyiv blame slow deliveries of Western weapons for the recent lack of progress.
The long-running spat over funding comes as Kyiv’s long-awaited counteroffensive in the south appears to have stalled, with Ukrainian officials blaming the slow progress on the speed of Western weapons deliveries.
Ukrainian forces are also struggling to hold a bridgehead they have created on the eastern bank of the vast Dnieper River.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian defense and military intelligence officials accused Russian troops 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,” Alexander Stupun, spokesman for the Tauride Defense Forces of Ukraine, said in a television interview on Monday.
“There were even cases where Russian drones killed their own wounded,” he said, according to the Kyiv Post.
A representative of the Ukrainian military intelligence service, Andrei Yusov, said that similar incidents were recorded repeatedly, including in footage filmed by Ukraine’s own drones.
Russia killed its own soldiers as a “reaction to the fact that there are a lot of people who want to surrender to Ukrainian captivity,” he said.