Head of Ukrainian defense firm Ukroboronprom steps down

WASHINGTON ― The head of Ukrainian state-run defense firm Ukroboronprom has announced his resignation. Roman Romanov served as the director general of the company for the last three and a half years.

In his resignation letter dated Feb. 12, 2018, Romanov thanked the Ukroboronprom’s 80,000 employees, crediting them with helping transform the defense conglomerate “into an effective mechanism, which ― in parlous times ― supplied our defenders with armament that helped them to defend our country.”

Romanov praised industry for its technological progress, “from armored vehicles to UAVs, designed in accordance with the NATO standards, instead of repairing Soviet military equipment.”

Reliance on Russian-made components for many of Ukraine’s main types of military equipment exacerbated the domestic industry’s inability to provide the Ukrainian Army with weapons to fight Russian forces in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine, collectively known as the Donbass.

In an essay on Defense News, Romanov said “the entire defense industry of Ukraine“ helped the country’s military transition from “combat-ineffective units” to “a well-armed Army.”

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