European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed an agreement in Kyiv on Wednesday to jointly boost drone production, as the European Union moved to deepen defense cooperation with Ukraine during Russia’s fifth year of the conflict.
The deal landed during ceremonies marking Ukraine’s Statehood Day. Von der Leyen used the occasion to dress up war production as continental destiny, saying Kyiv’s fight was “an existential fight for Europe’s freedoms — for its values, its self-determination.” The language is grand. The machinery is plain. Brussels is helping build more drones.
The Brussels War Machine Gets a New Contract
The European Union and Ukraine launched a new EU-Ukraine Defense Industrial Partnership, and the EU and Ukraine also signed a letter of intent that aims to establish joint drone and anti-drone production by the end of this year and joint anti-ballistic missile production by 2028, along with broader support for defense manufacturing. The agreement is meant to combine the EU’s industrial base with Ukraine’s battle-tested expertise, and it makes the partnership available to all 27 member states after several EU countries had already signed individual deals with Ukraine.
That is the Brussels model in one neat package: industrial capacity, military expertise, and public money fused into a single pipeline for weapons production. Von der Leyen said in St. Michaels’ Square in Kyiv, where she received Ukraine’s Order of Europe, a state honor: “Today, Ukraine’s fight is not only a fight for your own freedom. It is an existential fight for Europe’s freedoms — for its values, its self-determination.” She added: “You are not only fighting for your own future but for the security of our entire continent.” On social media, she said: “It’s a special moment. Ukraine has built a strong military momentum. The tide is turning.”
Zelenskyy matched the mood with industrial bravado. During the ceremony in Saint Michael’s Square, he said: “We are making 10 million drones a year – 10 million. And it will be 20 million.” He added: “For the first time, Ukraine has fundamentally changed the battlefield.” He also said, “Energy remains an unwavering priority.” Von der Leyen replied with the language of scale and capacity: “In Europe, we already have huge technological and industrial capacity that can be deployed. And we have safe and secure production sites that can help to scale up,” she said, adding, “But we do not have that battle-tested knowledge and expertise that Ukraine has forged. So the point I am making is that we need to combine our strengths. Together, we can work on joint production.” She also said: “Now is the time to invest in Ukraine, to invest in Europe, and to invest in our common security and common future.”
Money, Storage, and the Eastern Flank
Funding will come from two EU sources: the €90 billion support loan to Ukraine and the roughly €10 billion still available in the SAFE defence programme, though not everything will become immediately available. One billion under the loan was disbursed on Wednesday. The agreement also allows drones to be built and stored across EU territory rather than only in Ukraine, as a haven against Russian strikes, though the storage will be short-term because of the rapid evolution of the technology. After two to three months, the drones will be transferred to Ukraine or to member states interested in reinforcing their capabilities, particularly on the EU’s Eastern flank.
The Commission intends as a second step to expand the deal with Ukraine to the production of ballistic and anti-ballistic missile systems, though that remains far in the future. Zelenskyy said he expects Ukraine will have the technical capability to produce the sophisticated missiles by the end of the year, even though experts say it could take years. U.S. President Donald Trump said at the NATO summit last week that the U.S. will give Ukraine a license to build its own Patriot air defense systems, which are essential to counter ballistic missiles.
The pattern is familiar. Public funds move upward into military industry, then outward into production sites, then back into the war economy. The people paying for it are not the ones signing the ceremony photos.
State Honors, Summit Politics, and No Peace in Sight
Von der Leyen said her trip to Kyiv was her 11th in wartime. She and other dignitaries, including the presidents of Moldova and Romania, marked Ukraine’s Statehood Day, which celebrates the country’s sovereignty and is a public holiday. Senior officials from southeastern European countries were also in Kyiv for a gathering focused on Black Sea and regional security. Last year’s meeting in Odesa reaffirmed their support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Ukraine has been under threat since Russian forces illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, followed eight years later by the all-out invasion in 2022. The war has killed thousands of soldiers and civilians, forced millions to flee their homes, reduced some Ukrainian cities to rubble, and fueled fears the confrontation could slide into an open conflict between Russia and NATO, whose member nations have supported Kyiv. No peace settlement is in sight.
Zelenskyy has recently won important pledges of further support, including from the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations and the so-called Coalition of the Willing countries. Washington appeared poised to increase economic pressure on Moscow as a proposed Russia sanctions bill was unveiled in the U.S. Senate following Saturday’s death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of its chief backers. The bill, which its authors had hoped to pass last summer but was held up by White House reservations, would impose steep tariffs on goods from countries that continue to buy Russian oil, gas and other exports.
Wednesday’s official ceremonies came at a delicate political moment for Zelenskyy as he manages a major government reshuffle. Meanwhile, Serbia’s Moscow-friendly president, Aleksandar Vucic, was taking part in the Southeast Europe Summit in Kyiv. Serbia, which relies almost fully on Russia for its energy supplies, has refused to join Western sanctions on Moscow, although it officially supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
Russian forces dropped six powerful glide bombs mostly targeting infrastructure in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, killing three people and wounding seven, the head of the regional military administration Oleh Hryhorov said. Three people were killed and three others wounded in a Russian attack on Odesa, according to Serhii Lysak, the head of the city’s military administration. In the Chernihiv region of northern Ukraine, Russian drones killed two people and seriously wounded an 18-year-old, while one person was killed and two injured in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, officials said. Ukrainian officials said Wednesday that at least nine civilians were killed and 13 others were injured in Russian aerial attacks. The Russian Defense Ministry said its air defenses overnight intercepted 93 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions, as well as over Crimea and the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.
The ceremony in Kyiv was wrapped in flags, honors, and talk of self-determination. Underneath it sat the usual arrangement: governments, generals, and industrial planners deciding what gets built, where it gets stored, and who gets told it’s all for freedom.