One of the main problems for the development of MilTech in Ukraine remains the lack of working capital and the state’s inability to purchase all domestically produced output.
Speaking about the staffing situation, the founder of Octava Capital noted: “I always find specialists of any profile.” He acknowledged that there are кадрові problems, but said they can be solved.
“There are such problems, but they can be solved. The people we need do come. The funniest thing is that it is difficult to find design engineers who prepare factory documentation. Creative people do not want to go into this. Most people are used to the old-fashioned drawing board and paper. There are few people who work with new tools and are willing to do monotonous work. That is the biggest problem. And alongside those engineers — specifically mechanical design engineers who can develop something new — there must be a design bureau that describes everything for production and technology. Those who will document it all, do the more routine work, are very hard to find,” the IT millionaire said.
Speaking about the shortage of working capital in MilTech, Kardakov said: “Technically, this is a complicated matter. Who is going to provide money for something that someone is selling to someone unknown?”
He admitted that, in fact, this is now “an equation with three unknowns.”
“Banks are being overly cautious right now. We had a case the other day when a bank returned money to the buyer because it did not like the payment. And this was not the first payment. It simply did not like our contract, which has already been in force for quite a long time. They rejected another payment intended for us and returned it to the buyers. We are going to change this bank,” Kardakov said.
Speaking about investment in Ukraine, he noted: “There will be no investment in Ukraine for a long time yet. The country is unfit for investment.”
Answering the question of what, apart from the war, makes Ukraine unfit for investment, he said: “Everything. In none of the recent scandals has anyone been punished. I am even too lazy to talk about it. I no longer even discuss it internally. Some of the money that came into the country recently was lost. In particular, when the Trypilska Thermal Power Plant was restored, and the funds passed through shell companies.”
Kardakov also recalled that in 2025 Ukrainian defense startups raised more than $105 million. According to him, this is “negligibly little.”
“As of today, do we have any weapons technologies that are unknown in the West? As for drones, we have practically already lost leadership. We will not have leadership in interceptors either. Take Quantum-Systems (Germany). Well done. They made a reconnaissance drone, then bought Ukrainian companies, and now calmly do everything there. Technologies flow very quickly. They do not remain protected for long. Today there is practically nothing left to protect. Those companies in the world that work in this field have access to everything. That $105 million consists of fragmented purchases of what they want to acquire to accelerate their projects,” Kardakov said.
It was previously reported that Ukraine had achieved an important breakthrough and can now produce drones almost without using Chinese components.
