MOSCOW, June 4. /TASS/. Kiev plans to launch the production of weapons for its army in Western countries, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said after a meeting of the Ramstein contact group.

"Following today’s meeting in the Ramstein format, we are launching a new major initiative for the joint production of Ukrainian weapons in Ramstein countries," he wrote on his Telegram channel on Wednesday.

The project will be financed by Western participants in the initiative. Ukraine plans to jointly manufacture drones, missiles, munitions, electronic warfare tools, and other types of weapons. According to Umerov, weapons will be manufactured as long as hostilities continue.

"The partners are ready to produce Ukrainian weapons, Ukrainian technologies in their countries under an official license. Our position remains unchanged: the needs of the Ukrainian defense forces are of top priority. And the partners reaffirmed: everything that will be manufactures at these enterprises will go to the Ukrainian army as long as the war continues," he emphasized. He did not say however how many countries will take part in this project.

Ukraine’s authorities keep on calling on the Western partners to provide more military assistance and periodically criticize them for delays and insufficient supplies. This way, Kiev is seeking to shift responsibility for failures of the Ukrainian army onto allies. However, Vladimir Zelensky acknowledged in late May that free Western military assistance was reducing and Kiev has to spend its money to buy more weapons.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said stressed that weapons supplies to Kiev will not change the situation on the battlefield but will only protract the conflict.