On stage

LB

Liliane Bivings

Moderator · Kyiv Independent

SG

Sergiy Goncharov

NAUDI

HY

Halyna Yanchenko

MP of Ukraine

CC

Colin Campbell

Digi2L UK

JL

Jack Lopresti

International Legion

The panel examined how European nations can partner with Ukraine's defence industry through joint production, the "Build with Ukraine" initiative and technology transfer. Speakers detailed Ukraine's Defense City special-economic-zone law, preferential 5% defence loans, and the shift since 2023 from Western reluctance toward proactive co-production. Recurring themes were the mismatch between wartime urgency and peacetime procurement timelines, export restrictions, and the need to move Europe onto a "war footing."

The substance

Key takeaways

1

The relationship flipped between 2023 and 2025: former deputy interior minister Sergiy Goncharov described how European industry that once said "if you want it, buy it from us" turned proactive and began proposing co-production — a shift he called genuinely disruptive, driven by the realisation that Ukraine, uniquely, understands the modern battlefield through day-to-day feedback loops with its own troops.

2

MP Halyna Yanchenko put hard numbers on the transformation: Ukraine's defence output has grown roughly 35 times, from about €1 billion at the start of the full-scale invasion to as much as €35 billion a year, backed by a parliamentary 5% loan programme she leads — cheaper than inflation, effectively "free money" for producers.

3

The panel's sharpest warning to hesitant allies came via Yanchenko's retelling of EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius saying Lithuania calculated it needed three million FPV drones but decided not to buy because Ukraine innovates too fast ("like iPhones"). Her rebuttal: even a few tens of thousands are essential now, because after an attack there is no time to train operators or integrate drones with EW and tactics.

4

Colin Campbell (Digi2L) argued the hard part is not the technology but the enabling environment, and called for an accredited "Amazon Web Services for defence" — a trusted digital marketplace letting front-line integrators assemble components — noting that the best integrators are not the manufacturers but the soldiers themselves.

5

Jack Lopresti (International Legion, former UK MP) said the rhetoric is strong but the mindset has not changed: three years ago he was told the UK economy needed to go onto a war footing, yet a new shell factory still takes three years to build in peacetime timescales, while the same plant takes under a year in Ukraine — and Goncharov flagged the perverse problem that Ukrainian procurement often buys cheaper 20-year-old foreign stock over domestic product that returns 10–15% in tax to the budget.

In their words

Key quotes

“

We don't want charity. We want the joint project. We want the joint technology. We want to work jointly.

Sergiy Goncharov

“

We are here not to beg, we are here not to ask 'give us everything, anything, whatever' — but we are here to suggest cooperation.

Halyna Yanchenko

“

We know that Putin's preparing for a wider war with NATO in the next 10 years. So we really do need to change the mindset.

Jack Lopresti

“

The best integrators in the room are not really my company — it's the people on the front line.

Colin Campbell

Full transcript

The complete transcript of this session is being prepared for publication after a review pass.

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