Ukraine is loosening its arms export restrictions for the first time since Russia’s full-scale invasion began, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy affirmed at the UN General Assembly in New York.

“We decided to open our arms exports. These are powerful systems tested in real war,” Zelensky told the assembly. “You don’t have to start from scratch, we’re ready to share what’s already proven effective in real-world defense.”

Once a top-20 weapons exporter by global rankings, Ukraine became the world’s biggest weapons importer in the period of 2020–2024, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. But less than four years into the full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s bootstrap weapons development initiatives have grown into an industry ready to make it a significant exporter during a total invasion by a more numerous power.

The country is short on funds and cannot afford everything it needs for the war effort. What it does have are some of the world’s most proven and battle-tested technologies for the modern era of drone warfare, ushered in by the Russian invasion.

At the same time, Kyiv is looking to leverage its military innovation to gain closer integration with its allies from the European Union and NATO. In addition to lifting the export ban, Ukraine is angling to help the EU build its “drone wall” defense initiative and is inviting allies to test their weapons in live combat on its battlefields.

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In the president’s words, “it’s vital they also assist us so we can support them.”

Recent agreements between Ukraine and foreign partners include Zelenskyy’s July deal with US President Donald Trump to sell between $10 billion and $30 billion worth of Ukrainian drones to the US.

Kyiv is also looking into creating joint ventures with foreign firms, such as its deal with US company Swift Beat to co-produce drones. At the UN General Assembly, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Germany and Ukraine would create joint production lines.

“I think it’s the right decision,” Serhii Kuzan, chair of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center, told Euromaidan Press. “We don’t have many other options. We can’t just export metal and grain exclusively… In a war as big as ours, we need every kind of weapon that there is.”

To cover its shortages, Ukraine can sell the technology it does have — inexpensive yet brutally effective drones and other related hardware.

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Why Ukraine’s timing matters now

The decision is a win for Ukraine’s arms developers, who have been lobbying for months to be allowed to sell their weapons abroad.

Defense manufacturers sent a public letter to the president in May, telling him that it’s time to show that Ukraine isn’t just “a party that receives international support, but also a full-fledged partner that exports security through cooperation, technology, and its own experience.”

The timing of the export ban lift likely comes down to a few reasons.

Russia’s September incursions into the airspace of several European countries likely affected the timing as well.

Kirill Mikhailov, a military researcher with the Conflict Intelligence Group, predicted that Zelenskyy would jump at the chance to portray himself as the defender of Europe.

There may also be a limited time window for Ukraine to get into this market space and establish a foothold, in the opinion of Ihor Fedirko, executive director of the Ukrainian Defense Manufacturers Council.

Speaking with Ukrainian publication Militarnyi, Fedirko predicted that the domestic defense industry has a year before Western companies start to catch up, creating steeper competition for Ukrainians.

Ukraine’s production capacity vs funding gap

According to a report by the Technological Forces of Ukraine and the Better Regulation Delivery Office, Ukrainian manufacturers are only working at a median 55% of their available production capacity.

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This number jives with estimates from multiple Ukrainian companies and military experts who spoke with Euromaidan Press on this topic. Right now, the Ukrainian government cannot afford to procure enough hardware for every developer to go full throttle.

Kuzan said it took time for the Ukrainian military-industrial ecosystem to reach this level of capacity and feel confident enough to strike out into the uncertainty of the foreign markets. This coincides with Ukraine’s uncertainty about outside funding, he added.

“We will cover the deficit in financing for the production of weapons from this year, in part through the controlled export of some types of our weapons,” Zelenskyy wrote in a public address on 19 September. “Thanks to such controlled exports, we will increase the production of drones for the front.”

What battle-tested weapons Ukraine can offer

On the other hand, Ukraine has what many other countries lack: its weapon systems are continually tested on the battlefield. This leads to rapid improvements and evolutions that cannot be achieved from the safety of a laboratory.

Kuzan said that new weapons developments that once took years now happen quarterly. Pavlo Lakiychuk, a retired Ukrainian navy captain, said that electronic control systems for UAVs, such as FPVs, now change every few weeks.

A Ukrainian drone developer familiar with European systems claimed to Euromaidan Press that the less-sleek Ukrainian models can do the same job at a fraction of the cost. He asked not to be identified for security reasons.

In his remarks, Zelenskyy emphasized the export of naval drones that could secure the sea routes of many countries that depend on them.

Unmanned surface vehicles such as the Magura or the more recent, littoral-focused Barracuda evolved from simple boat-shaped suicide bombers to highly-modular systems that can be outfitted with a variety of weapons and tech for the task at hand.

Lakiychuk agreed that naval drones will be in demand, with the caveat that there is more competition in that segment of the market. On the other hand, he said Ukraine’s unmanned aquatic technology is improving faster, in response to the constant battlefield challenges.

As Russia adapts to taking down surface drones, Ukraine recently unveiled its Toloka series of torpedo-shaped submersible drones, which can operate at depths of 300 meters, making them impervious to many of the above-surface weapons that have no trouble dealing with Maguras.

The largest Toloka models are claimed to have a range of up to 2,000 kilometers and a payload of up to 5,000 kilograms, though Lakiychuk said only time and operational use would prove whether their autonomous control systems are up to snuff.

While this arms race between unmanned systems can be a nightmare for their battlefield operators, it could give Ukraine the boost it needs to stay ahead of its competition on the international arms market.

“The facts are simple, stopping this war now and within the global arms race is cheaper than building underground kindergartens or massive bunkers for critical infrastructure later,” Zelenskyy was quoted as saying.