KYIV. Nov 6 (Interfax) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was shocked when he was told that the Malyshev plant in Kharkiv has produced only one tank for the Ukrainian Armed Forces since 2009.
"I am shocked by the statistics. The plant director told us that since 2009 we have made only one tank, only one tank for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. And the statistics is that in Soviet times there were 900 tanks a year," he said on Wednesday in Kharkiv at a conference on problems in the operations of Ukroboronprom state corporation.
Zelensky said that some defense industry facilities owe their employees wages for up to four years, the wage level is very low and in winter, for instance, people work in premises in freezing temperatures.
The president said that the prime minister should convene the entire Cabinet and representatives of law enforcement bodies and mull the problem.
"So that we would understand who our customers are and why we are making tanks for someone else, for Thailand but don't make them for Ukraine. Why we have excellent airplanes, excellent designers but we don't manufacture anything and nothing flies," he said.