Ukraine's allies offer to pay for its defence manufacturing, Kyiv says

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine's allies voiced willingness to pay for defence manufacturing by Ukrainian companies in allied countries, Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said on Wednesday after meeting Western counterparts at the Ukraine Defence Contact Group.

Umerov did not specify the potential value of such an offer. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has previously said he would like $30 billion from allies to cover Ukraine's shortfall in defence manufacturing capacity.

"Our partners said they are willing to fully pay for all the production from these factories, and that ... (they) will appropriate even more funding for this," Umerov told a press conference in Brussels.

The Ukraine Defence Contact Group spans over 50 nations, formed after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. It is sometimes referred to as the Ramstein Group after the U.S. air base in Germany where it first convened, and was previously led by the United States.

Umerov said the initiative did not have a proper name yet, but was for the moment called the "Ramstein Investment to Industries Initiative". He said all Ukrainian defence products produced abroad under licence during the war will go to Ukraine.

Umerov also said Ukraine had experienced difficulties in purchasing Chinese DJI Mavic camera drones, often used for battlefield reconnaissance. He said Ukraine was working on a home-grown substitute.

(Reporting by Max Hunder and Aleksandar Vasovic; editing by Mark Heinrich)