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Just before launching its EU presidency last week, Denmark inked a \u20ac67 million agreement with Ukraine to let their defence companies build their designs on Danish soil – the first of its kind.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a major contribution to Ukraine\u2019s fight for freedom, as well as to the Danish and European armament,\u201d Morten B\u00f8dskov, Denmark\u2019s minister of industry, business and financial affairs, said in a press release<\/a> last month.\u00a0<\/p>\n This first deal between Ukraine and Denmark will \u201censure a higher degree of integration\u201d for Ukraine in Europe\u2019s wider rearmament, the statement continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n The agreement comes a month after Ukraine launched an international joint weapons production program<\/a>me with its allied countries to build \u201clicensed production lines for Ukrainian weapons in partner countries\u201d.\u00a0But do these recent efforts go far enough?\u00a0<\/p>\n How are European countries building Ukrainian tech?<\/strong><\/p>\n There are already several projects in play between Ukraine and private industry in Europe, such as the UK\u2019s production<\/a> of the Raybird surveillance drone,<\/a> a \u201cflexible fixed-wing\u201d 20-kilogram drone that can be deployed in under 25 minutes and can fly for roughly 28 hours over a 2,500-kilometre range.\u00a0<\/p>\n A French auto manufacturer will produce first-person view (FPV) drones in Ukraine, with France\u2019s armed forces minister Sebastien Lecornu calling it a \u201cwin-win partnership\u201d in French media<\/a>. Le Monde reported<\/a> that automaker Renault was approached for this work.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sweden\u2019s SAAB, Norway\u2019s Kongsberg, French-German KNDS, Germany\u2019s Rheinmetall, and the US\u2019s Raytheon are reportedly expanding their presence on the ground, according to a June press release<\/a> from Ukraine\u2019s ministry of defence.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday<\/a> that his country struck more deals with European allies and a leading US defence company to \u201cstep up drone production\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n Zelenskyy didn\u2019t name the businesses in his address. Euronews Next has followed up with the Ukrainian government to find out more about the deals that have been signed but did not receive a reply at the time of publication.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ukraine is also working on draft legislation for joint weapons production with allies that should be put to a vote in their parliament later this month, according to Rustem Umerov, Ukraine\u2019s defence minister.\u00a0<\/p>\n The programme includes plans to create a special legal and tax framework to help Ukrainian defence manufacturers scale up and modernise production, including building new facilities at home and abroad, Umerov said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018We are not included in the common planning\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n These projects are a promising first step but Ukraine is still not included in the \u201ccommon planning\u201d that the European Union is doing regarding its rearmament, said Olena Bilousova, senior research lead of military at the Kyiv School of Economics.<\/p>\n She added that American-made M982 Excalibur shells dropped in efficiency to reach their targets from 70 per cent to six per cent as Russia continues to advance its electronic warfare (EW). This is a form of artillery<\/a> that the EU has sent to Ukraine in the past.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of cases like that when we understand that the weapons which were common and still common in procurement of the EU should be reviewed [or] at least \u2026 modernised,\u201d she told Euronews Next.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ukraine\u2019s reliance on drones as a \u201ccheap solution\u201d in its offensives against Russia is also misunderstood by Ukraine\u2019s allies, Bilousova added, noting that the country should be able to build drone procurement strategies with its partners.\u00a0<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t mean that Europe should be focused only on procuring drones, Bilousova continued, but that Ukraine should develop with them \u201cnew strategies around conventional weapons,\u201d including how many are needed and how they can be protected against drones.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bilousova said Ukraine could also teach Europe how to speed up the development of new battle-tested technologies based on their model.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ukraine uses the \u201cDanish model\u201d of military procurement to develop a new technology from idea to product testing on the battlefield, which takes anywhere from three to six months, compared to traditional weapons procurement, which usually takes up to 18 months.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ukraine can do this through earmarking an estimated $30.8 billion (\u20ac29.4 billion) in 2023 for the war effort, a level that is 20 times higher than the pre-2022 invasion level, a recent report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute found.\u00a0<\/p>\n Crowdfunding through platforms such as United24 has also raised over $1 billion (\u20ac950 million) and distributed approximately $930 million (\u20ac884.61 million) of that to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the last three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n Both pots of money are then redistributed to Brave1, a \u201cunited coordinational platform\u201d that provides more than 470 grants worth an estimated 1.3 billion hryvnias (\u20ac29 million).\u00a0<\/p>\n Pan-European approach to Ukraine defence tech \u2018unlikely\u2019<\/p>\n Bilousova said it\u2019s not clear what forum would be the best to bring in Ukraine as a \u201cconsultant\u201d for rearmament.\u00a0<\/p>\n But a pan-European initiative to get Ukraine fully integrated into rearmament might not be possible because time is \u201cof the essence,\u201d said Jacob Kirkegaard, senior fellow with the Bruegel think tank.<\/p>\n \u201cThe vast majority of this integration will happen at the bilateral level and will be driven by Ukraine\u2019s desperate need for more weapons and the willingness by many member states \u2026 to provide the money,\u201d he told Euronews Next.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is not, unfortunately, a capability that the EU has as a whole\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, it doesn\u2019t stop the Commission from identifying \u201ctarget projects\u201d that would be of shared interest with Ukraine, such as developing advanced air defence, drone surveillance for subsea internet cables or cybersecurity, Kirkegaard continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n The EU has already activated a \u20ac150\u202fbillion “SAFE” loan instrument<\/a> that lets states borrow money for joint defence projects. At least 65 per cent of the weapons\u2019 components have to be sourced from within the EU or Ukraine.\u00a0<\/p>\n