The van picks up the journalist in a parking lot in a city in central Ukraine. The vehicle's windows are covered with dark fabric so that passengers cannot see the path they are following. Cell phones also need to be disconnected. The van goes through several curves until it reaches its destination: a Metinvest factory, the largest corporate group in Ukraine. One of the warehouses there assembles anti-mine rolls for tanks, an essential tool for clearing a path between Russian defense lines. They are an essential technology for the Ukrainian army and an example of the Ukrainian private sector's efforts to boost its military industry and no longer be dependent on international aid.
Metinvest's largest shareholder is Rinat Akhmetov. In Europe he is best known as the owner of the Shaktar Donetsk football club, which regularly takes part in the Champions League. In Ukraine he is the richest man in the country. Akhmetov comes from Donetsk, the capital of the Donbass region, which was illegally annexed by Russia. Metinvest is a steel giant affected by the war: the company lost the Azov Valley steel plant, the largest in the country, in Mariupol, which was also occupied by the invader, and suspended operations at its coking plant, currently the largest in Europe. Base coal-derived fuel for metallurgical furnaces in the Avdiivka municipality, currently under siege by Russian forces.
Akhmetov, his industrial group and his football club left Donetsk when pro-Russian separatism took control of the city in 2014. He remained loyal to Ukraine, unlike other Donbass oligarchs who laid the foundations of their fortunes in the decade of the 1990s. Starting with the privatization of the assets of the recently dissolved Soviet Union. Since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022, Akhmetov's influence has been challenged by new laws signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky, demanded by the EU to reduce the political power of oligarchs. But his commitment to Ukraine's defense remained intact and Metinvest became involved in the defense industry for the first time. He did so at a time when building the national military industry is a matter of life and death for the presidency.
“If we don’t help, no one will,” says Igor – he doesn’t want to give his last name – spokesman for the Metinvest project to produce anti-mine rollers. They produce an average of five to six per month, giving them the workforce and, most importantly, the facilities to protect them from recurring enemy bombing raids on industrial infrastructure. “Many Metinvest employees are in the army and we lack factories,” confirms Igor. The loss of the Avdiivka coking plant is a serious setback, this spokesman confirms, as is the closure of several coal mines in Donbass. Ukraine was one of the richest countries in the world in this mineral, but the war has reduced this available natural resource and prices have skyrocketed. The result is that a ton of coal cost $300 before the war, but today, according to Igor, it costs $550.
Metinvest operators assemble parts of an anti-mine roller in Ukraine in December. Cristian Segura
Metinvest's anti-mine rollers became active last summer, in the middle of the counteroffensive on the Zaporizhzhia front. Russian defenses in this part of the battle line and also in Donetsk province are protected by the most densely mined fields that military analysts can remember in a war. Last September, members of the Tor special forces group estimated to EL PAÍS that there could be five mines for every square meter on this front, including anti-personnel and anti-tank mines.
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Andrii is a colonel [también prefiere no facilitar su apellido], commander of a National Guard brigade fighting in the east of the country and using Metinvest rollers. They are adaptations of Soviet equipment, but are designed to function by exploding up to eight mines, compared to the five that Soviet blades can destroy before being replaced. Andrii adds that this roller is the first in Ukraine that can be installed on any model of armored vehicle.
Secret underground base
The meeting with Andrii takes place in a secret base dug underground. For security reasons, they request that this newspaper not state which province they are in. They also do not allow the journalist to see how the reels work. The more months of war pass, the greater the secrecy and information restrictions imposed by the Ukrainian armed forces. When it comes to the national production of weapons, the secrecy is even greater. The commander confirms that Metinvest also supplies them with bulletproof vests, helmets and portable bunkers. However, bombing and reconnaissance drones developed in the country are most often used.
“I don't know how long the war will last,” says Andrii, “but we have a 1,300 kilometer long border with Russia, we will always be in danger and we need our weapons production.” Signals from Ukraine's NATO allies indicate this indicates that it will be more difficult to get help. The Republican Party in the United States Congress and Senate blocks the allocation of $61,000 million ($55,056 million) that the White House plans to allocate to Ukraine in 2024; Also in the European Union, a support budget of 50 billion euros was blocked by the Hungarian government near Moscow. Between summer and fall, military deliveries from Ukraine's Western partners were the smallest of the war, 90% less compared to 2022, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy confirms in its latest report.
In this context, Zelensky's primary goal is to strengthen the national military industry and, above all, to encourage major Western defense companies to establish production centers in Ukraine. Last September, the president summoned 250 representatives of military contractors to a conference in Kiev to unveil a plan to make the country the West's largest arms producer. Nearly 40 of these companies committed to exploring investments in manufacturing centers in the Russian-invaded country. The most important news in this regard came in December of this year, when the German company Rheinmetall announced that it would start producing Fuchs and Lynx armored personnel carriers on Ukrainian soil in 2024 with a local partner. The British BAE had previously shown its commitment in the same direction.
NATO howitzer ammunition
Ukraine already produces 155-millimeter-caliber ammunition, the most basic projectiles for NATO howitzers, and has developed a new long-range missile, an evolution of the Neptune naval missiles, but the units produced are minimal, according to the Defense Ministry. A major success of Ukrainian industry in the war is the monthly production of six Bogdana howitzers in Kharkiv, of which there was only one prototype in 2021.
Ukraine has proven to be most self-sufficient in the development and production of drones, air and sea drones. But European manufacturers such as the German Quantuum have also registered to produce these vehicles in Ukraine, taking advantage of the tax advantages granted to them and, above all, the country's experience in using these aircraft in combat operations.
The main problem is that any industrial infrastructure can be a target of Russian fire, especially those that produce strategic material for Ukraine's defense. Metinvest spokesman Igor is not aware of any underground factories being built. In his experience, the best protection is a good anti-aircraft system. But the closer to Russian positions, the less room for maneuver an anti-aircraft battery has, especially against ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. Dangers lurk even far from the enemy: In 2022, EL PAÍS checked how two Russian cruise missiles hit their target, an arms repair facility in Lviv in western Ukraine, hundreds of kilometers from the front.
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an American center for political and defense studies, released a pessimistic report on the potential of Ukraine's military industry on December 4. The author of the document is Katerina Bondar, former adviser to the Ministry of Defense and Finance of Ukraine. Their conclusions were grim in all areas, the first being safety: “There is no magic solution to reduce risks.” For example, moving production underground would greatly increase costs and worsen working conditions. “Aircraft defense systems are rare and cannot guarantee complete protection.”
For Bondar, the efforts of companies like Metinvest or thousands of small private initiatives are a time-consuming solution task: “Large investments in new physical infrastructure are unlikely as long as there is a risk of a Russian attack.” Corruption, unprofessional management, inefficient companies and technological deficiencies are just a few of them Challenges that Kiev must address before Ukraine can produce weapons systems and ammunition on a scale necessary for its enormous military needs.”
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