Who is willing to pay for Ukrainian weapons: head of defense company named promising countries

Ukrainian weapons manufacturers are now seeking countries ready to finance production of armaments rather than buy them for themselves. Among the most promising directions are the Nordic countries, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Romania, and Bulgaria.

In an interview on 24 Kanal, the general director of “Ukrainian Armored Vehicles” Vladyslav Belbas spoke.

Which countries are most interesting for the Ukrainian defense-industrial complex (OPK)

According to Belbas, the Ukrainian defense companies’ approach to working with foreign partners has changed. Now one of the priorities is attracting funds from other states to produce weapons that will remain in Ukraine.

Now we are no longer looking for a market where we could sell our weapons. We are looking for countries that would be willing to fund weapon production for Ukraine,

– Belbas explained.

First and foremost, “Ukrainian Armored Vehicles” focuses on European partners. Among the promising directions Belbas named the Nordic countries, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Romania, and Bulgaria.

Separately, he highlighted Serbia, which has a developed defense industry of its own and may be interesting to Ukraine from the perspective of production cooperation.

Why Ukrainian OPK is interested in Serbia

According to Belbas, Serbia is a relatively small but powerful defense-industrial platform with its own production of equipment and weapons.

There is a lot of equipment, weapons, and technologies there. The technologies are not ultra-modern, but it is still production. And if we establish good cooperation with them, there could be very interesting options for interaction,

– noted the general director of “Ukrainian Armored Vehicles”.

Belbas also expressed hope that the situation in the relations between the two countries would change. In this context, he recalled the first official visit of Volodymyr Zelensky to Serbia, which took place 7 in August 2026 year.