Integration of Ukraine into the European Defence Industrial Base: From Assistance to Co-Production

The integration of Ukraine into the European Defence Industrial Base (EDTIB) marks one of the most consequential shifts in the strategic and industrial architecture of the Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030. This initiative transforms Europe’s relationship with Ukraine from that of donor and recipient into one of long-term industrial partnership, embodying the principle that deterrence can only be sustained through production, not dependency. Conceived in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion, this policy anchors Ukraine’s defence recovery within the framework of European readiness, ensuring that the country’s rearmament contributes directly to Europe’s broader deterrence posture. It realises the logic of the Porcupine Strategy outlined in the White Paper for European Defence – Readiness 2030: to make Ukraine indigestible to aggression by embedding its industrial, technological, and logistical systems within Europe’s defence ecosystem. The integration also carries an economic rationale: by linking Ukraine’s manufacturing potential and wartime innovation with Europe’s capital and technological infrastructure, the Union expands its industrial geography eastward. The initiative therefore serves a dual function — a strategic shield reinforcing Europe’s security frontier and an industrial engine that transforms reconstruction into a mechanism of deterrence.