Denmark came to Kyiv in force. With its biggest-ever business delegation, the country is deepening defense and investment ties to strengthen Ukraine’s security, resilience, and recovery. In an interview with UNITED24 Media, Danish Minister for Industry, Business and Financial Affairs, Morten Bødskov, shared how new partnerships and guarantees are turning long-term commitment into concrete action.
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For the third year in a row, Kyiv hosted the International Defense Industries Forum that gathered hundreds of participants from all over the world. The Danish delegation consisted of nearly 30 Danish defense tech companies and around 140 people. UNITED24 Media discussed with Bødskov the importance of investments in Ukraine, as well as help in strengthening the country’s backbone.
Denmark is among Ukraine’s strongest partners. Could you tell us more about this cooperation?
Denmark now provides more support to Ukraine per capita than any other country in the world. Danish and Ukrainian industries, companies, and businesses have been doing business together for many years and decades. But after Russia’s full-scale invasion—and actually also before that—we intensified the investments, and now we are launching new initiatives to strengthen the investments between Danish and Ukrainian companies.
The Danish Minister for Industry, Business and Financial Affairs, Morten Bødskov, took part in the International Defence Industries Forum in Kyiv on Oct 6, 2025. Photo: UNITED24 Media
We are here in Kyiv with the biggest Danish business delegation ever to Ukraine. If you count not only the companies that attend the delegation but also the civil servants from ministries and authorities, it is around 140 persons. And what are we doing? We are strengthening the ties between Denmark and Ukraine. We are finding new ways to invest in Ukraine and attract Ukrainian investments to Denmark. It’s a partnership built on decades of friendship and trust.
Yesterday, you announced the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding. What’s inside this document, and what impact will it have on Ukraine and Denmark?
This Memorandum of Understanding is a step further in the direction of strengthening the ties between Danish and Ukrainian businesses, but also our two governments. What we have had since the full-scale invasion is a “Danish model” for investment guarantees, meaning one within Ukraine. We can lift a little bit of the risk of the investments off them and make it easier for Danish companies to invest in and with Ukrainian companies. This Memorandum of Understanding focuses on that. It focuses on the partnership that Business-to-Business has created and will create in the future.
The Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Kyiv on Oct 6, 2025. Photo: X/ @Denys_Shmyhal
The commitment from the two governments is simply to focus on the partnership, partnership by partnership, cutting red tape, rolling out the red carpet, so to speak, and then forcing the investments between Danish and Ukrainian businesses on a broad variety of issues. We have two main facilities when we are talking about guarantees. We have one facility focused on, for example, critical infrastructure, agriculture, health care, and other traditional industrial areas. This guarantee reduces the investment risk for Danish companies by partially covering their financial exposure. It alone has accelerated Danish investments in Ukraine in a huge amount, meaning that we now have active investment under this guarantee for one billion euros.
Den største danske erhvervsdelegation nogensinde besøger Ukraine. Starter med tale på den store konference for forsvarsindustri i Kyiv om nye muligheder for tættere samarbejde mellem dansk og ukrainsk erhvervsliv.#dkpol #slavaukraini pic.twitter.com/4TZOj6rSf6
— Morten Bødskov (@mfMorten) October 6, 2025
We also have another guarantee model, focusing on defense. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed on Monday during the huge defense conference in Kyiv. This can guarantee up to 70% of a Danish company’s investment in a Ukrainian company. This guarantee was formed and adopted in the Danish parliament in the spring. But today , we launched the first Danish-Ukrainian defense cooperation with a guarantee as part of the investment.
My main message here today—it’s now time to invest more in Ukraine because we have to strengthen the backbone of Ukrainian society. We have to invest enough in the defense industry so that Ukraine will have its country back again.
You’ve already mentioned the “Danish model”. What are the results of cooperation between Ukraine and Denmark under this “Danish model”?
The “Danish model” has clearly brought enormous investments to the Ukrainian defense industry. Other countries are also participating. Hopefully, more will come—because it further boosts the Ukrainian defense industry. It is an enormous success because it has given the industry huge possibilities to speed up investments and production.
What’s the main challenge with Putin’s Russia is to scale up defense production. The main focus of this “Danish model” is actually to gather money, invest directly in the Ukrainian defense industry. I’ve met a number of companies today that have had the possibility to invest as part of the “Danish model.” There’s no doubt that it has succeeded and given the defense industry in Ukraine a possibility to scale up fast production of, let’s say, drones, jammers, and other types of equipment.
Denmark also became the first country to which Ukraine exports advanced defense technologies for manufacturing, scaling, and supplying the Ukrainian Armed Forces. What’s the importance of such a step?
Your fight for freedom is also our fight for freedom. Whatever we can do to help, we are more than willing to do that. That’s what has brought Denmark in, even though we are a small country, at the top of the rank. We are number one when it comes to per capita and investment and help to Ukraine. So this is just another example of that.
What are your impressions of this year’s International Defense Industry Forum?
It has certainly grown bigger. Ukraine has brought itself into a position where a number of countries are actually looking towards Ukraine, especially when it comes to their own scale-up of their defense budgets and investments. We also saw that at the conference, many, many countries participated.
The Danish Minister for Industry, Business and Financial Affairs, Morten Bødskov, took part in the International Defence Industries Forum in Kyiv on Oct 6, 2025. Photo: UNITED24 Media
We brought nearly 30 Danish defense tech companies to the conference. By far, Denmark was represented with the largest delegation at the conference. It’s an example of our good friendship and good trust, but also the huge interest in the development of the defense industry here in Ukraine.
Maybe there was some Ukrainian innovation that was presented during this year’s forum that surprised you the most?
Overall, Ukraine stands out now as a country when it comes to innovation within the defense industry. It’s stunning to see how it has developed. Remember, I was Minister of Defense in 2022 when we had the full-scale invasion. When I visit Ukrainian defense companies now and see the production lines and see the way the technology has developed, it’s out of another world, and it’s impressive in so many ways.
That’s also why we are seeing an attraction to a conference like the one we had yesterday. So new technologies within jamming, drones, of course, surveillance, command and control—all these projects and tools are based on high-end technologies. And that’s where Ukraine differs now.
You are leading the development of high-end defense technology, which is why it’s so interesting to be here. That’s also why I’m proud that we have created cooperation between Denmark and Ukraine.
Ukrainian Minister Denys Shmyhal mentioned that during the meeting, you discussed the prospect of launching a demonstration hub in Denmark where Ukrainian security and defense technologies will be showcased. When such a hub might be launched?
We already have the presence of one big Ukrainian defense company, namely Fire Point. They’re actually in the process of establishing themselves in Denmark, and hopefully, if everything goes the right way, we’ll have production coming out of Fire Point’s facilities around the New Year.
During his visit to Ukraine, the Danish Minister for Industry, Business and Financial Affairs, Morten Bødskov, met with the Ukrainian Minister of Defense, Denys Shmyhal. Photo: X/ @Denys_Shmyhal
The next step will be to strengthen the collaboration between Danish and Ukrainian defense businesses and to create a showroom, a hub for Ukrainian defense technology in Denmark that can showcase it to the world and to Europe. This way, we can help each other solve the problems that we’re also facing in Europe by giving them access to the high-end technologies that Ukraine has developed within the last couple of years.
Minister Shmyhal also stated that you discussed the need to strengthen sanctions against Russia. Just yesterday, Bloomberg wrote that Denmark is tightening inspections of oil tankers to stop the Russian “shadow fleet.”
There’s no doubt that Putin uses the “shadow fleet” to finance his war here in Ukraine. It’s out of the question. That’s why we within the European Union have adopted numerous packages of sanctions against Russia. But we have also focused directly on the “shadow fleet.”
The latest initiative from the Danish side is environmental legislation that will be strengthened now. The “shadow fleet” consists of old, rusty ships, and they threaten the environment in the straits that they are sailing through. That’s why we have strengthened the legislation. So we have clear legislation saying what they can and cannot pollute. This is basically the legislation that will be adopted in the parliament in this session.
You also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Could you share what you discussed?
I met with President Zelenskyy and was glad to see a good friend of Denmark. We had a good discussion on the different projects that we are involved in when it comes to developing closer ties between Denmark and Ukraine. We discussed defense and investments in defense technologies, the idea of the showroom and the hub in Denmark, and, among other things, how we can continue what we have seen for decades—a strong Danish presence and strong Danish investments in Ukraine.
The meeting between the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Danish Minister for Industry, Business and Financial Affairs, Morten Bødskov. Photo: X/ @ZelenskyyUa
The meeting between the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Danish Minister for Industry, Business and Financial Affairs, Morten Bødskov. Photo: X/ @ZelenskyyUa
If you go around Kyiv and drive around its suburbs, you can see the presence of many of the strongholds within the Danish industry. They’ve been here for decades, and some of them are the companies that invest the most in Ukraine. We should develop and continue this because it creates growth and jobs for Ukrainians.
You also discussed Ukraine’s reconstruction. What kind of help is Denmark providing and might provide in the future in this regard?
Mykolaiv is a good example—there, we are investing in what will be the largest onshore wind farm in Eastern Europe. We’ll have windmills and turbines, and we are producing up to around 60 of them. They’ll be placed on the site, and they will alone deliver green, clean, secure energy to 700,000 Ukrainian homes.
Investments like that come from the guarantee model, but they are an example of how we need to invest. We cannot wait for peace. We need to invest now because we have to strengthen the backbone of Ukrainian society and give ordinary Ukrainians hope for the future. That’s what we do.
Besøger Vitalii Kim i Mykolayiv. Som regional militær guvernør var han og hans kontor på 3. sal målet for det russiske missil, der sprang hullet i bygningen. Heldigvis havde han flyttet et møde, men flere af hans kammerater døde ved angrebet.#dkpol #slavaukraini pic.twitter.com/GJ2dYoU5ea
— Morten Bødskov (@mfMorten) October 8, 2025
This is just another example of Danish investments in Ukraine. This is an enormous investment, but it is an investment in critical infrastructure and the rebuilding of Ukraine’s energy sector. What we see is Putin directly targeting the energy structure. We have to find ways to secure energy for 700,000 Ukrainian homes.
That’s why my message is simple. I would love to give other countries the experience that Denmark has had over the years. Other countries can do more, and they must do more now.
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