The Ukrainian defense industry is facing a severe shortage of personnel: key factors
25 May 13:19
Ukraine’s defense industry is growing rapidly, but it cannot find enough workers—and the roots of this problem go back decades. This is reported by "Komersant Ukrainian", citing RBC-Ukraine.
As the publication notes, the Ukrainian defense industry has been rapidly expanding its operations in recent years, while facing a number of challenges.
The defense industry today operates in an environment of rapid change. The vast majority of market players have increased their teams by at least 25% over the past year, and nearly half have grown by more than 50%.
Companies are scaling up production, expanding R&D efforts, adapting to new warfare technologies, and competing for talent with IT firms, industrial companies, and international corporations.
Therefore , the main challenge is ensuring that their expertise aligns with the real needs of the defense-tech sector.
The number of defense-tech companies in Ukraine has grown tremendously.
At the start of the full-scale invasion, there were fewer than 100 defense companies in Ukraine. Today, the market already includes thousands of companies.
Most of them have expanded their teams by at least a quarter over the past year, and nearly half have more than doubled in size.
At the same time, companies are ramping up production, developing new technologies, and competing for specialists with the IT sector and international corporations.
Why are there so few people?
“The key challenges for employers in the defense industry are the lack of a sufficient number of specialists needed by the market. The state has not encouraged the development of technical and related fields. For a long time, these fields were unpopular and not a priority for prospective students,” Serhiy Goncharov, executive director of NAUDI, told RBC-Ukraine.
According to him, today’s pool of specialized professionals consists of people who received their technical education back in the Soviet era, as well as retrained specialists.
Despite this, state-owned and private companies are actively trying to attract new people to the industry.
The number of job openings is growing
Statistics from several job platforms indicate that the defense sector job market is developing its own momentum. According to DOU, 5,915 job openings were posted in the industry in 2025, 1,940 of which appeared in the fourth quarter alone.
In December 2025, the number of new job postings on the platform exceeded 700.
“The Ukrainian defense industry is no longer a narrow niche. It is a distinct labor market that simultaneously requires engineers, production specialists, procurement officers, project managers, and experts in quality, exports, and partnerships,” noted Ihor Fedirko, CEO of the Council of Arms Manufacturers.
In his view, the industry’s development depends on how systematically the state can train personnel to meet the actual needs of production.
As a reminder, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed to the King of Bahrain that they conclude a “Drone Deal” and share Ukraine’s experience in countering drones and defending against terrorist attacks. The parties agreed that their teams would work out the details of the agreement.
Watch us on YouTube: important topics – without censorship
