Ukraine and European Union agree Drone Deal

Ukraine and the European Union have agreed a defence-industrial agreement known as the Drone Deal. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, announced this during celebrations marking Ukrainian Statehood Day.

Source: Ukrinform, a Ukrainian news agency, citing Ursula von der Leyen

Details: Von der Leyen said Ukraine had, in many ways, moved from being a buyer to becoming a supplier of a security network for Europe, which required a new way of cooperating.

Quote: "I'm delighted to launch, together with you, Volodymyr [Volodymyr Zelenskyy – ed.], a new EU-Ukraine defence-industrial partnership. What we are signing today is our very own Drone Deal."

More details: Von der Leyen pointed to the unique nature of Ukraine's combat experience and the knowledge it has gained in the field of drones and counter-drone systems. She said the EU and Ukraine should use these developments together, given the threats Europe is facing.

She also stressed that events in Ukraine and around the world demonstrated the importance of deploying capabilities tested in combat.

Von der Leyen said Europe already has enormous technological and industrial potential that can be deployed, as well as secure and reliable production sites that could help expand production.

She concluded that the agreement would combine Ukrainian ingenuity with Europe's industrial capacity and send a signal about the need to invest in Ukraine and shared security.

Background:

• Earlier, Ukraine and Estonia agreed on defence cooperation in the Drone Deal format.
• It was reported earlier that Ukraine reached an agreement on defence cooperation with Saudi Arabia, agreed on security and defence cooperation with the United Arab Emirates and signed a defence agreement with Qatar. In May, an agreement in this format was also concluded with Lithuania and in June with Latvia.
• Zelenskyy also said Ukraine is working in the Drone Deal format with 27 countries around the world.

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