Ursula von der Leyen travelled to Kyiv on Friday and signed the EU's first defence industrial partnership with Ukraine — a drone production agreement that merges European manufacturing scale with Ukrainian battlefield innovation. The deal marks a shift from aid packages to joint ventures, with funding drawn from the €90 billion support loan and roughly €10 billion still available under the SAFE defence programme.
Von der Leyen arrived at the train station and declared, "The tide is turning." Standing beside President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, she said, "Russia may have darkened your skies with smoke. But no one is fooled. No cloud of smoke can hide the reality on the battlefield. Russia's momentum is weak. Ukraine, on the other hand, continues to resist."
The Drone Partnership
The partnership will enable the storage of drones on EU soil before deployment to Ukraine. It's the first agreement of its kind — a recognition that Ukraine's drone warfare expertise has become a strategic asset Europe needs to harness. The deal intends to expand to missile technology further down the line. Ukraine has moved the fighting to the skies, launching long-range drone strikes against Russia's oil refineries, some of them thousands of kilometres from the contact line. The strategy has strained Moscow's war chest and forced the energy-rich country to restrict fuel exports.
Russia is exploiting Ukraine's severe shortage of US-made Patriot interceptors, which are essential to deflect ballistic missiles, to pummel cities at a relentless pace. Residential blocks, supermarkets, warehouses, railway stations, schools and museums have all been hit in recent weeks. Hundreds of civilians have been killed. Von der Leyen was rushed to an underground shelter after an air raid alert was triggered during her visit. The intervention, which Euronews witnessed, proceeded calmly and lasted but a few minutes.
Shortly after leaving the shelter, she toured the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a historic monastery whose golden-domed cathedral was set on fire one month ago by a Russian attack. As she marvelled at the frescoes, she spotted some areas still blackened by the flames.
Accession Momentum
The visit reflected a renewed synchrony on Ukraine's path to EU membership. Von der Leyen arrived in Kyiv one day ago after Ukraine opened a new cluster of negotiations, the second in one month. The breakthrough, made possible after the Hungarian elections three months ago, has laid a reasonable path to unblocking the remaining four clusters after the summer break.
About five months ago, in late February, von der Leyen had little to show for. The accession process was under the tight grip of Hungary's veto, thwarting any formal decision. Hope was virtually lost for as long as Viktor Orbán remained in office. Zelenskyy had then asked for full membership by 2027, saying, "It's true that we want a fast track for membership." Von der Leyen replied, "I understand very well that for you, a clear date is also important. The date you set is your benchmark that you want to match. You know that from our side, dates by themselves are not possible, but of course, the support that you can reach your goal is absolutely clear on our side."
This week, the accession story played to a vastly different tune. Zelenskyy has stopped talking about 2027 altogether. He said, "Our relationship with Europe is now the strongest, most meaningful and most personal than at any other point in our history." Von der Leyen and her team privately welcomed what they saw as Zelenskyy's improved understanding of enlargement as a step-by-step trajectory that can be politically sustainable only if its core rules are politically credible. Von der Leyen told him, "You are preparing for your future as a member state of our Union. But the truth is, your actions are already shaping the future of our entire continent."
Domestic Turbulence
Murmurs of turmoil triggered by Zelenskyy's sudden government reshuffling grew louder as the visit went on. The following day, when von der Leyen was gone, Ukrainians took to the streets to protest the dismissal of Mykhailo Fedorov, the highly popular defence minister credited with taking drone warfare to the next frontier.
Why This Matters:
The drone partnership shifts Europe's Ukraine support from financial transfers to industrial co-production — a model that builds European defence capacity while meeting Ukraine's immediate needs. It's a recognition that the war has forced European nations to rebuild military-industrial capabilities atrophied after decades of underinvestment. The accession progress is equally significant: Hungary's veto paralysed the process for months, and its removal has unlocked a credible path forward. But enlargement must not become a vehicle for lowering standards or rushing timelines. Zelenskyy's shift from demanding a 2027 date to embracing a step-by-step process suggests a more realistic approach. For European taxpayers footing the €90 billion bill, the question is whether Ukraine can meet the governance, rule-of-law, and anti-corruption benchmarks that make membership sustainable — not just whether it can open negotiating clusters.