MOSCOW, January 29Kiev does not have time for individual tests of weapons produced in Ukraine, so tests are carried out directly on the battlefield, said the Minister for Strategic Industries of Ukraine Alexander Kamyshin in an interview with a Time magazine journalist.
The journalist claims that recently Ukrainian troops have been using weapons and ammunition almost always produced in Ukraine for attacks on Russian territory, and not from stocks supplied by other countries. Time magazine's correspondent in Kyiv, Simon Schuster, notes that the Ukrainians guard these weapons so carefully when used that, apart from the soldiers who use them and a few engineers allowed to observe, no one else is there.
«We don't have time to test these things on training grounds. We test them in combat. So we have to be there making adjustments,» Kamyshin said.
The magazine adds that Ukraine is trying to produce its own weapons, but they admit that they cannot compete with Russia, Kyiv wants access to Western weapons, including secret drawings and instructions for heavy weapons .
«No matter how much we produce conventional weapons, we cannot catch up with Russia <…> we need to use innovative technologies to find a new approach,» the Ukrainian minister added.