Ukraine and Poland to jointly produce rounds for Soviet-era tanks

Ukroboronprom said Poland would become the second NATO member state to help Ukraine produce ammunition as the country battles Russian troops that launched a full-scale invasion more than 13 months ago.

"In line with the agreement, new production lines to produce large numbers of ammunition for 125-mm tank guns are planned," the company said in a statement. The agreement was signed during President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's visit to Poland on Wednesday.

Ukraine will provide the technology and send its specialists to Polish cities where production facilities will be located given high security risks. Russia has conducted long-range air strikes on targets in Ukraine throughout the war.

Ukroboronprom's officials have said Russia has constantly attacked arms facilities, forcing it to move production to safer areas. In February, the company announced it had started producing ammunition with a NATO country in central Europe.

Ukraine depends heavily on weapons and ammunition supplies from its Western allies during the war. Ukrainian military commanders constantly stress the need for more ammunition at the frontlines.

Serhiy Holubtsov, one of the most senior commanders in the Air Force, said that while donations of Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets by allies were an "important step," the planes did not fully meet Ukraine's battlefield requirements.

NATO members Poland and Slovakia recently began to hand over MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, as Kyiv prepares for a much-vaunted counter-offensive to retake territory occupied by Russia.

But Holubtsov said that while Soviet-era warplanes were better than nothing, they would not be able to fully counteract Russia's vast air force.

"The F-16 is a fighter that has become a multirole aircraft which can fulfil the entire spectrum of airborne tasks. The MiG-29 unfortunately, is (an aircraft) from the last century," he said on national television.

He added that the F-16s were "four or five times" more effective than the Soviet-era planes currently used by Ukraine

On a visit to Warsaw on Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he believed Poland would take a leading role in forming a "coalition" of Western powers supplying warplanes to Ukraine. Warsaw helped galvanise support for supplies of tanks earlier this year.

During Zelenskiy's visit, Poland pledged 10 further MiG-29s to Ukraine on top of the four already provided.

Any coalition of F-16 donors would likely be reliant on backing from the U.S., by far the largest operator and builder of the planes.

Washington has ruled out sending F-16 jets to Ukraine for now, and U.S. officials have estimated the most expeditious time needed for training and delivery at 18 months.

Holubtsov said there was a possibility of having foreign pilots fly Ukrainian jets, but that they would only be useful when flying aircraft which they have already been trained on.

He also said that two Ukrainian pilots had undergone tests in the U.S. to assess their skills, which he said were "successful" and could lead to a "significant shortening" of the training time required for Ukrainian pilots.

He did not say how long that revised training time might be.