An UE-Ukraine working group to stimulate the defense of the defense industries will meet for the first time on Monday with Brussels wishing to reproduce the prowess of kyiv innovation and production since the start of Russia.
“Today, we are announcing the creation of the UE-Ukraine Inter-Institutional Working Group. And today, Ukrainian and European experts in this group will meet for the very first meeting to help integrate our defense industries, to facilitate the development of joint projects or public procurement processes,” said Andrius Kubilius, European Defense Commissioner, EU-EUKRAINE INDUSTRY Forum.
Supply chain problems and capacity areas identified as priorities, including explosives and drones, are particularly interesting for the group.
“We have to learn from Ukraine how to create a drone production and exploitation infrastructure,” said Kubilius, adding that when it comes to drones “who needs integration more: Ukraine or Europe? My answer – Europe”.
According to the Ukrainian government, the annual annual capacity for the country's annual production is expected to reach 35 billion euros this year, an increase of 35 times compared to 2022 when Russia launched its large -scale attack not caused against its neighbor.
European industry, on the other hand, has initially had trouble accelerating, Sadly missing a target To produce a million ammunition bullets within 12 months. It is now about to produce two million laps this year.
Ukraine's defense companies are not only tested in combat, but also “fast”, “modern” and capable of producing “half the price” compared to their European counterparts, said Kubilius.
“There is a need for Europeans not only to buy weapons from Ukraine and Ukraine. It is clear that Europeans buy technologies, the know-how of production and management systems of Ukraine for our own European defense industries,” he also said.
Alexander Kamyshin, advisor to the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told the same forum that the conflict would fall into history “as the First World War of drones”.
Ukraine, he added, has experienced “substantial success in the manufacture of all types of unmanned systems” and now “has a solution for automatic targeting focused on AI for air strike drones”.
“The next great thing is drone swarms, coordinated attack capacity.”
“We are ready to share what our industry has learned in this war with you, our strategic partners,” he said, adding: “We are here to build the Arsenal of the free world together.”
The EU plans to pay hundreds of billions of euros in the defense sector over the next four years, including up to 650 billion euros thanks to an additional budgetary space and 150 billion euros via a new loan program, called SAFE, aimed at stimulating the joint supply of European manufacturing capacities, and from which Ukraine and its companies can also benefit.
Member States are currently negotiating security parameters and should conclude talks before the end of the month. It will then take more than six months for the first disbursements to pass.
In the meantime, the Commission holds a strategic dialogue with the EU-based industry this week, followed by an implementation dialogue towards the end of May and a simplification omnibus for the sector in mid-June.
ADVERTISEMENTA plan of industry perspectives, based on the national capacity objectives provided by the Member States, should be published at the end of June, when EU leaders should also approve common European flagship projects in defense.
“Peace by force will come from production power and brain power. To stop Putin, we must produce more, we must innovate more, and we must do it together: in the EU and with Ukraine,” said Kubilius.
