Ukraine, Canada sign joint defense production agreement
Ukraine and Canada have signed on agreement on the joint production of defense equipment, Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal announced on Aug. 24.
The announcement coincides with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's first official visit to Kyiv. The prime minister arrived in the capital on Aug. 24 to celebrate Ukraine's Independence Day and announced a military aid package worth over $700 million.
Shmyhal signed the agreement along with his Canadian counterpart David McGuinty in the presence of Zelensky and Carney.
"The agreement aims to deepen bilateral defense and industrial cooperation, expand and create new production capacities in Ukraine and Canada, and increase the stability and continuity of defense product supplies," Shmyhal said.
The deal will make it easier to establish Ukrainian defense companies in Canada and provide Kyiv "with modern weapons and military equipment in the long term," he said.
Carney's visit also involved a showcase of new developments in Ukrainian defense technology. Zelensky posted video footage of the two leaders viewing models of Ukrainian UAVs, ground-based systems, and other weapons in development.
"These are weapons and equipment that are being created here in Ukraine to protect our state," Zelensky said.
At a press conference alongside Carney, Zelensky stressed the importance of Ukraine's domestically produced arms, saying Kyiv uses its own long-range weapons to strike targets in Russia.
"At the moment, we are using our long-range domestically produced weapons, and we haven’t been discussing such matters with the U.S. lately. There was a time when there were different signals regarding our retaliatory strikes after their (Russian) attacks on our energy system," Zelensky said.
The president's remarks came a day after the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. has quietly implemented a review process giving Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authority to bar Ukrainian long-range strikes inside Russia with American missiles, effectively blocking strikes for months.
Kyiv has been rapidly working to scale up defense production since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022 and has been urging international partners to help finance this expansion.
During the recent NATO summit in July, Zelensky said Ukraine has the capacity to produce over 8 million drones of various types each year, but lacks the financial backing to reach that potential.
Zelensky announced on Aug. 20 that Ukraine plans to begin mass production of its domestically developed long-range Flamingo cruise missile this winter.
