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Ukraine and Finland signed a series of agreements Sunday to jointly develop and manufacture military drones, expand cooperation on maritime unmanned systems and build a new facility for ground robotic systems, deepening a defense partnership between the two countries just ahead of Ukraine's Independence Day.
The agreements were signed by business representatives on the sidelines of a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Finnish President Alexander Stubb in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy framed the deals as the natural next step in a relationship that has spanned the full course of Russia's war against Ukraine. "From the very beginning of this war, you have stood with us. Now that our military and defense sectors have grown, we can cooperate," he said. He added that the two countries were deepening their cooperation by combining Ukraine's battlefield experience with Finnish technology.
Stubb said Ukraine was helping ensure Europe's security and possessed the continent's strongest capabilities for modern warfare, arguing that closer cooperation would strengthen both nations. He characterized the partnership as a two-way exchange, saying Finland could support Ukraine in the short term while Ukraine could, in turn, contribute to Finland's security over the long term.
Beyond drones and ground robotics, Stubb pointed to potential cooperation in cybersecurity and space, saying the two countries were working to make their defense partnership more concrete. Finland, which shares a roughly 1,340-kilometer border with Russia, joined NATO in 2023 in response to Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a move that marked a historic shift from decades of military non-alignment.
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