Ukraine and the European Union have finalized a deal to establish collaborative drone production projects that merge Kyiv’s technical knowledge with Europe’s manufacturing capabilities, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.
Speaking in Kyiv at a ceremony marking the country’s Statehood Day, von der Leyen called for a pooling of complementary strengths, saying the arrangement will marry "Ukrainian ingenuity and Europe’s industrial scale." The agreement is framed as a mechanism to scale up production by setting up joint initiatives between Ukrainian teams and European industry.
The announcement follows a sequence of bilateral arrangements Kyiv has already struck with individual countries. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, attending last week’s NATO summit in Ankara, signed three additional agreements that he said lifted the overall tally to nine such deals. The accord announced on Wednesday differs from those earlier pacts in that it is designed to span multiple EU countries and companies rather than single-state partnerships.
In her remarks, von der Leyen highlighted Ukraine’s acquired operational knowledge in both drone and anti-drone systems as a distinctive asset. "The knowledge you have gained on how to work drone and anti-drone systems is truly unique," she told President Zelenskiy, adding that joint work will be necessary to address known threats. She pointed to incursions and alerts that have affected a number of EU member states as evidence of the risks the bloc faces in this domain.
Von der Leyen also outlined advantages the EU can contribute to the partnership, including substantial technological and industrial capacity and access to safe and secure production sites. The framing suggests an emphasis on translating battlefield-derived capability into wider production at industrial scale while locating manufacture in environments that meet security and safety requirements.
Ukraine’s drone sector has grown rapidly since the Russian invasion of its neighbour in February 2022; the country had comparatively limited expertise in the sector prior to that point but has since developed a sophisticated industry. Zelenskiy has actively promoted drone cooperation abroad, notably in the Middle East where Gulf states have expressed interest in Ukrainian expertise as they respond to Iranian strikes.
Reporting note: Information in this article is based on statements made by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Ukrainian officials at the Kyiv ceremony and related public remarks.