Western militaries are undermining Ukraine’s defence, experts say

Mundane regulatory problems in Kyiv and unimaginative institutional thinking in Europe’s militaries are holding up joint weapons production. And that is undermining Ukraine’s battlefield performance and leaving Europe’s armed forces unprepared for modern warfare.

Those are the conclusions of a new report from the Centre for Statecraft and National Security (CSNS) at King’s College London, and experts who spoke to Al Jazeera.

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For two years, Kyiv has sought to scale up its weapons production by inviting Western partners to fund new production facilities in exchange for battlefield testing. Kyiv receives weapons, Western partners receive know-how.

That formula has led to at least 180 business-to-business partnerships between Ukrainian and foreign partners, but 22 percent of them are stalled, according to the report, Beyond Aid: Making Ukraine Defence Cooperation Work.

One of those stalled ventures is an artillery shell factory that German defence giant Rheinmetall announced a year ago, which should now be starting production. Yet ground has not been broken on the project, because Ukrainian authorities have delayed permits and the government then moved the factory’s site.

Copyright for this text belongs to Al Jazeera.