"President Vladimir Putin said Russia had 'exponentially' increased production of key weaponry between 2022 and 2025, speaking at a meeting in Moscow to review the draft state armament programme for 2027–2036 on Friday. "The decisions jointly made and the timely state support measures adopted have allowed, in short time, the strengthening of the material and technical facilities of the defence-industrial complex enterprises and increasing capacities for the production of necessary types of weapons throughout the co-operative chain," Putin explained. "As a result, as already noted repeatedly, compared to 2022, the production of especially in high-demand products and items during the special military operation has increased exponentially by 2025,” he added. The Russian president noted that combat experience gained during the fighting in Ukraine was being fully incorporated into future planning for Russia’s armed forces and defence industry. “The experience gained in combat in Ukraine was fully utilised in shaping the new face of the armed forces and the defence and industrial complex,” he said. Putin also outlined the next steps for implementing the long-term rearmament programme, stressing a focus on efficiency and cost reduction. “As for implementing the new state arms programme, work in this direction will continue. For this, a set of measures has already been developed to ensure the sequential build-up of high-tech production with maximum automation, growth in labour productivity, and, which I particularly want to emphasise, the reduction of product cost,” he said. Moscow launched a military offensive in Ukraine in February 2022 after recognising the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), claiming that Kiev had failed to guarantee their special status under the 2014 Minsk Agreements, and urging Ukraine to declare itself officially neutral and give assurances that it would never join NATO. Kiev denounced the Russian action as an invasion. Volodymyr Zelensky imposed martial law throughout the country, announcing a general mobilisation, while the EU and the US imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow. "