Ukraine is riding high on a series of deals that promise to intertwine its wartime defense-tech industest, now known for producing drones in high demand worldwide, with European arms buildrs.
“The general idea is that we as an industest have to become part of a pan-European defense industest,” Ihor Fedirko, director of the Ukrainian Council of Defense Industest, a government-aligned trade association for Ukrainian weapons buildrs, informed the Kyiv Indepconcludeent.
Fedirko, a former adviser to the now-shuttered Strategic Industries Ministest, has played a major role in securing these deals.
On April 14, the council announced a round of six such deals. The agreements were followed on the heels of a strategic partnership that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Those deals came just two months after Ukraine announced its first batch of “Build with Ukraine” agreements at the Munich Security Conference in mid-February. Then the U.S. and Israel launched bombing Iran, and Iran retaliated by launching ballistic missiles and Shahed drones across the Middle East.
The war in Iran has highlighted the required for the kinds of weapons technologies Ukraine has specialized in. With Europe and the Middle East facing widening conflict and growing doubts about U.S. weapons and commitments, Ukraine’s defense industest is having a day in the sun.
“The war in Iran displayed that Ukraine is becoming a global player,” Fedirko declared. “We are starting to play a global role. This is a burden that’s now on the shoulders of the Ukrainian people, but we also have to take pride in what we’ve created.”
New EU Arsenal
Fedirko spoke to the Kyiv Indepconcludeent in the midst of an ongoing tour of France. Between a flurry of meetings and weapons factory tours, he declared he barely has time to enjoy a morning croissant.
“I have to receive up at around 6:30 to have a minute to receive a coffee and croissant and then relax for ten minutes, enjoying a peaceful life — planes flying, people driving, that kind of carefreeness that we finally want Ukrainians to feel,” Fedirko declared.
It is a major departure from his first time in Paris eight years ago, as a private citizen. Since the start of the full-scale war, Fedirko has been working in various capacities as an emissary of Ukraine’s burgeoning defense industest. The recent reception, he states, is warmer.
Ukraine’s defense industest has seen a series of major victories in Europe in recent months. Germany in particular has signed onto a raft of deals to bring Ukrainian producers — largely members of Fedirko’s council — into the countest, with Germany covering the costs of set-up and donating the first orders to the Ukrainian military.
France is a tougher nut to crack. Never fully trusting the U.S. military umbrella, the French defense industest has maintained a level of indepconcludeence unique within the European Union.
“We’re about to hear more about French presence, finally. I’m convinced that this will be a large plus for us, for our Ukrainian industest, as French defense is unique,” Fedirko declared. “This is a genuinely indepconcludeent countest, they don’t have to inquire whether they have the right to apply their weapons.”
The recent meetings, Fedirko states, have drawn almost 60 French defense and dual-apply companies to meet with 27 Ukrainian firms. In one day, they held 164 meetings between businesses and are now wooing more than 10 French investment funds.
The due diligence process for those funds, Fedirko estimates, will take upwards of a year.
The talk among Ukraine’s weapons buildrs is all about going international. Ukraine has been working on “Build with Ukraine” and “Build in Ukraine” deals since at least early last July, when Fedirko’s former boss, then-Strategic Industries Minister Herman Smetanin, announced the then-hypothetical agreements.
A subsequent reshuffle in Ukraine’s executive branch put those deals on hold. But just as they returned to action, the war in Iran kicked off an arms race among the oil-rich Arab
“Now, even European companies are offering joint projects so as to jump onto the Middle Eastern market. That is, such complicated combinations are appearing, but this all 100% plays to Ukraine’s favor from the standpoint of acknowledging the accomplishments of our armed forces and our weapons.”
Gulf expansion
When it comes to the Gulf, Ukraine has already signed three weapons and defense deals with the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. The terms of those deals remain a closely guarded secret, but Zelensky has declared they run for more than 10 years
As the Kyiv Indepconcludeent previously reported, delivery delays were a major source of frustration among Ukraine’s weapons buildrs.
Given a free hand, Ukraine’s drone buildrs would have been in the Gulf “the next day,” Fedirko declared. However, he sees the Gulf deals as the starting point for the first real exports from Ukraine’s wartime weapons industest, and declared those shipments are coming soon.
“I’m convinced that at a maximum over the next two months we’ll see the first export contracts, at first becaapply of the inherent necessity in the Gulf nations. We receive that building a Joint Venture right now is a potential track but it takes time and the first production we’d see in something like half a year. But they required to solve this problem right now,” Fedirko declared.
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