EU signs Drone Deal with Ukraine, releases 1 billion euros for unmanned systems

Ukraine and the European Union have signed a new Defense Industrial Partnership, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on July 15, calling Kyiv a "net security provider for Europe."

"What we are signing today is our very own Drone Deal," von der Leyen said in a speech during her visit to Kyiv on Ukraine's Statehood Day — her 11th official trip to the country during the war.

The chief of the EU's executive arm also announced disbursment of 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) for drones, a sum that is part of the partially paid-out 5.9-billion-euro ($6.7 billion) defense support tranche, itself part of the 90-billion-euro ($103 billion) Ukraine Support Loan.

The EU further confirmed a 10-billion-euro ($11 billion) funding plan for additional drones, deep-strike missiles, and Gripen fighter aircraft for Ukraine.

This plan would amount to around 6 billion euros for drones ($6.85 billion), 1.5 billion euros for missiles ($1.71 billion), and 2.5 billion euros for fighter jets ($2.85 billion), a European Commission spokesperson told the Kyiv Independent.

Sweden recently pledged to donate the first 16 Gripen C/D fighter jets to Ukraine in early 2027, expanding Ukraine's growing fleet of Western warplanes. Kyiv also signed a deal on June 30 to purchase 16 Gripen E aircraft — the latest variant of the Swedish-designed aircraft — with deliveries beginning in early 2029.

While defense funds from the Ukraine Support Loan prioritize European- and Ukrainian-sourced hardware, Kyiv earlier secured an exemption for buying Chinese drone components under the loan.

Ukraine has already signed drone cooperation deals with multiple countries in Europe and the Middle East, sharing experience in deploying and countering unmanned systems.

"In Europe, we already have huge technological and industrial capacity that can be deployed. And we have safe and secure production sites that can help to scale up," von der Leyen said.

"But we do not have that battle-tested knowledge and expertise that Ukraine has forged. So the point I am making is that we need to combine our strengths."

The new EU-Ukraine Drone Deal builds on earlier agreements with European partners while putting them into a coherent framework, with the goal of getting joint production up and running by the end of the year.

The announcement was accompanied by the signing of an EU-Ukraine memorandum on the new partnership, with both sides agreeing to develop a joint "Defense Industrial Pact" together with European member states.

According to the document, the pact would aim to use funds from the 150 billion-euro (about $170 billion) SAFE defense loans program to boost cooperation, with up to 10 billion euros available for this purpose.

The news comes as Ukraine seeks to deepen defense-industry cooperation with European partners — a development driven by thinning Western arms stockpiles and Ukraine's growing defense-industry know-how.

Ukraine and nine European partners also recently founded the Anti-Ballistic Missile Coalition, working to co-develop the new Freya air defense project amid Kyiv's critical shortages of Patriot interceptors.