So much for Slovakia
not sending any additional weapons to Ukraine. It turns out (as I thought) it was simple grandstanding by Prime Minister Robert Fico, because Slovakia didn't have much left in its inventories that it could afford to donate.
That said, Slovak Parliament voted to allow their arms exporters to sell as many weapons and as much ammunition to Ukraine as they can find buyers for. Multiple Slovakian arms producers are now seeing records profits. None more so than ammunition and artillery shells producer ZVS Holdings, which is 50% owned by the Slovakian Government.
According to Jaroslav Nad, the Slovakian Defense Minister:
"Almost 100 percent of the munitions production of ZVS Holding for the next two or three years has been sold out to Ukraine,"...
Make no mistake about it, as Ukraine prepares to spend $42+ Billion usd out of its own coffers on defense in 2024, a good chunk of that money is earmarked to buy ammunition directly from Slovak, Finnish, Polish and Bulgarian firms. ZVS Holdings sold Ukraine 44 million Euros worth of said ammunition through the first 7 months of 2023. Total purchases for the year were between 60-70 million Euros. That number is expected to rise throughout 2024 as ZVS Holdings has now successfully doubled its 155mm artillery shells production from 25,000 shells per year, to 50,000 shells per year. Further capacity expansion to 75,000 shells per year is already underway.
www.euractiv.com
Law change gives defense ministry veto over arms export licenses, allowing it to favor private-sector partners.
www.politico.eu