Building together: How Europe and Ukraine should deepen their defence industrial partnership – European Union Institute for Security Studies |

Building together: How Europe and Ukraine should deepen their defence industrial partnership  European Union Institute for Security Studies |

Deeper EU-Ukraine defence industrial integration can strengthen Ukraine's ability to resist Russia while bolstering Europe's own defences. By combining Ukraine's innovation and expertise with European capital, technology and long-term demand, both sides can build a stronger shared defence industrial base. EU-Ukraine defence-industrial cooperation is moving from a logic of support to one of partnership. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, European support initially took the form of arms deliveries, including through the EU’s ammunition initiative and the Czech ammunition initiative. Later, Europe’s focus broadened to financing production in Ukraine, a model pioneered by Denmark and subsequently adopted by the EU, which began channelling windfall profits from Russia’s frozen assets into Ukrainian defence production.

The volume of EU support expanded further with the approval of a €90 billion support loan for 2026-27, around €60 billion of which will be directed to defence, on top of bilateral assistance by Member States. Over the past year, the relationship has increasingly evolved from one based on assistance towards one centred on industrial cooperation and integration. However, the transition is not complete. Crucially, much cooperation still focuses on maintaining and producing existing systems rather than jointly developing new ones. The partnership is driven both by governments and by an emerging network of industrial partnerships linking Ukrainian defence companies to their European counterparts. European firms have