The arms Ukraine outgrew in two years are now its potential export catalogue

The head of Ukraine's Office of the President, Kyrylo Budanov, has listed the Ukrainian weapons Ukraine has outgrown but could still suit foreign buyers — older FPV drones, sea drones, bombers, long-range UAVs from 2022-2023, and armored vehicles, in an NV interview at a defense conference on 26 April.

"We ourselves don't have enough"

Ukraine's arms exports remain "let's say inactive" today, Budanov noted, with the country still short of weapons in a "hot phase" of ongoing full-scale war. Opening free arms sales abroad would be wrong, he argued — strange for Ukraine, unclear to its foreign partners, and morally unjustifiable while Ukrainians fight.

"It would be incomprehensible to neither us nor foreign partners on whom we depend in many ways," Budanov said.

But pockets of overproduction have begun appearing, the head of the Office of the President added. 

"Pointwise, I am sure that work can be started in this regard," he said.

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The risk of high-tech leaking to Russia through such exports is a real concern, Budanov noted. Ukraine itself has procured foreign weapons through such routes many times.

What Ukraine can actually sell

Budanov named several categories where production exceeds front-line need:

• Sea drones — "we definitely produce more of them than we use," he said.
• Older FPV drones — saturation of Russian electronic warfare has rendered them unable to take off at the front. "They simply don't fly anymore," Budanov said. Bomber drones fall in the same category.
• Long-range UAVs from 2022 and 2023 — once Ukraine's flagship deep-strike capability, now too short-ranged to reach Russian targets. "They simply won't reach anywhere," Budanov said. For Asia and Africa, he added, such drones "are still suitable."
• Armored vehicles — combat vehicles with two-axle steering for off-road performance. Ukraine produces these "quite a lot," Budanov said, with the volumes "significantly larger than what we can afford" for ourselves.

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A narrowing export window

The bigger picture is that Ukraine's exports were largely suspended after 2022 and were only recently unblocked. Bureaucratic friction, intellectual property concerns, and the threat of sabotage have left €150 billion in potential European partnerships stuck in limbo awaiting approval. UK Armed Forces Minister Al Carns warned earlier this month that Ukraine is running out of time to export, with global rivals catching up.

Kyiv has been working to widen the channel. The Defense City legal regime, launched in January, cuts the time for export license reviews from 90 to 15 days for participating companies. Ukrainian firms are also moving production abroad.

11 countries have signaled interest in Ukrainian air-defense drone tech, with three Gulf states already signed up to 10-year deals. Budanov also said Ukrainian drone makers need to focus next on artificial intelligence and a domestic command-and-control architecture.