Borrell announces ening of defense innovation office in Kyiv

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Picy Josep Borrell stated this today in Brussels before the EU-Ukraine Defense Industries Forum, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"The coeration we want to inspire today must indeed go both ways. Eure's defense ecosystem has a lot to offer, but also, has a lot to learn from Ukraine. We need to step up structurally our industrial defense capacities. This is key in a long war of attrition like this one," Borrell said.

"This is why, when presenting recently the first Eurean Defense Industrial Strategy, we prosed to start immediately working on the integration of Ukrainian defense companies into the Eurean Union's defense industrial ecosystem. We have to integrate the Ukrainian defense capacity, from the industrial point of view, with ours. […] Our ability to deliver – more and quicker – missiles, artillery ammunition and [anti-]aircraft systems more massively and quickly to Ukraine is a matter of life and death for thousands of Ukrainian civilians and their military personnel. It is [also] our security which is at stake," he said.

According to Borrell, in concrete terms, this integration means particularly to promote joint procurement between Eurean and Ukrainian defense industries. The forum, which is taking place today in Brussels, should serve to identify concrete portunities for joint initiatives between Ukrainian and Eurean companies, boosting Ukrainian industrial production, helping Ukraine to rearm, and funding it, Borrell said.

He noted that such work had already begun, as several Eurean companies have recently entered into joint ventures in Ukraine, which allowed to move repair and maintenance closer to the front, but also to produce artillery ammunition.

"We do not start from scratch, but we need to go further. We [will] en a new EU Innovation Office in Kyiv later this year to facilitate matchmaking between Ukrainian start-ups and [Eurean Union] defense companies. We associated the Eurean Defense Agency to this Hub in the field of autonomous systems for military logistics. But I repeat: financing is key in all these efforts," Borrell said.

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The EU-Ukraine Defense Industries Forum is taking place in Brussels on May 6. The event brought together more than 350 participants, including representatives of government organizations and Eurean businesses. The main goal of the event is the further support and integration of the Ukrainian defense industry into the Eurean defense industry to immediately meet Ukraine's needs in armaments and military equipment and increase Eurean defense production capacities.