Russia's Medvedev says defence factories meeting demand, denies missile
shortage
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[February 25, 2023]
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Former Russian president Dmitry
Medvedev said the country's factories are working round the clock to
meet an exponential increase in defence orders, mocking the idea that
Moscow's forces in Ukraine were running out of missiles.
Medvedev said Moscow had increased military production "by tens of
times" at some factories and was closely studying weapons fired into
Russian-held areas from the Ukrainian side in an effort to gain an
advantage.
Russia moved defence production into overdrive last year as its forces
burned through huge quantities of ammunition in Ukraine and had
thousands of armoured vehicles destroyed or captured.
A leading Western think-tank said last week that Russia had lost around
half of its most modern tanks and was struggling to replace them.
Ukrainian and Western officials have said that Moscow is running low on
some types of missiles, and that Western sanctions are hampering its
ability to replenish its stocks of guided weapons that rely on imported
microchips.
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"It was funny to hear the Kyiv fantasists reasoning that 'missiles ran
out' in Russia or 'production stopped'. The reality convinced them of
the opposite - they still cannot get over the shock," Medvedev said in
an article published on Saturday in monthly magazine National Defence.
"We are not just expanding production, but also introducing the latest
technologies, perfecting them literally 'on the march'."
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Deputy head of Russia's Security Council
Dmitry Medvedev visits the Omsk transport machine factory, in Omsk,
Russia February 9, 2023. Sputnik/Ekaterina Shtukina/Pool via REUTERS
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Medvedev is deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council and was
appointed in December to be President Vladimir Putin's deputy on the
Military-Industrial Commission that oversees the defence industry.
Defence factories were "fully coping" with the increased demand from
the state, he said.
"Incidentally, we have also studied enemy weapons quite well, which
were taken as trophies and dismantled to the last screw at our
military construction bureaux," Medvedev added. "We extracted a lot
of useful things for ourselves - we turned the enemy's experience to
our own advantage."
Medvedev, 57, has adopted an increasingly hawkish tone and made a
series of outspoken interventions since the war began with some
political analysts suggesting he is one of the people that Putin
might one day consider as a successor. On Friday, he said the only
way for Moscow to ensure a lasting peace with Ukraine was to push
back the borders of hostile states as far as possible, even if that
meant the frontiers of NATO member Poland.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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