Ukraine tripled weapons production last year, minister says

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine tripled its weapons production last year and 500 companies are now working in the country's defence sector, Kyiv's strategic industries minister said on Sunday.

Kyiv is searching for ways to strengthen its defences against Moscow's two-year-old invasion, including by boosting domestic arms production and innovation.

Oleksandr Kamyshin said during a televised conference in Kyiv that 100 state and 400 private companies were involved the effort, and that Ukraine this year plans "to considerably increase ammunition production."

In a separate address, Ukraine's digital minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, said 90% of the drones used on the battlefield against Russian forces were produced in Ukraine.

Ukraine's interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said during the conference that not a single weapon had crossed the border from Ukraine into the European Union during two years of Russia's full-scale invasion.

(Reporting by Olena Harmash; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Bernadette Baum)