Arsenal of free woria Head of Ukraine's arms industry argues for new role after end of war

Oleksandr Kamyshin, the man with the job of reviving Ukraine's domestic arms industry, has a dream. When the war is over, he believes, Ukraine should focus on arms production and export, turning itself into the "arsenal of the free world".

- Shaun Walker

In a recent interview at his office in central Kyiv, Kamyshin said: "For the next decades, defence should be the major industry in Ukraine. After the war it should be our core export product."

At the start of the war, Kamyshin was the head of Ukraine's state railway network, and won plaudits for the way his team managed efforts to transport millions of refugees to the western borders in the first days of the war. In March, Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, appointed him minister of strategic industries. The title is a misnomer, said Kamyshin - for now, there should be only one strategic industry in the country.

He liaises with the army and defence ministry, as well as with Ukraine's 70 state-run defence enterprises, to try to make sure the army gets what it needs. Generals have complained that even with western arms deliveries they are facing a chronic shortage of weapons and ammunition.