EU Now Sees Ukraine as Essential to European Security
Officials in Brussels are trying to "integrate" Kyiv's battlefield innovations into the union's defense capabilities.
Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Trump administration’s decision to halt almost all U.S. military assistance to Kyiv have led to a development few observers would have predicted when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.
Four years ago, both the European Union and NATO were skeptical about rapid membership for Ukraine, mainly because they viewed the country as more of a burden than a contributor to the organizations. To be fair, Kyiv failed to meet many of the formal political, economic and security requirements at the time — and it still doesn’t fulfill some of the criteria today.
But that may not matter as much as it did before, judging by my visit today to the European Commission in Brussels. Officials at the commission, the EU’s executive arm, are so impressed with the new military capabilities Ukraine has developed as it defends itself against Russia that they are convinced those capabilities must be closely integrated with the EU’s own defense industry, because they are increasingly viewed as essential to European security.
“I think what’s happening with Ukraine is quite fascinating, because we are suddenly seeing Ukraine emerging as the world’s laboratory for new military equipment and new defense protocols,” one senior commission official told me. Even before Ukraine becomes part of the EU, “we are spending a lot of time at the moment on trying to drive this integration of the Ukraine defense industrial base into that of the EU,” the official said.
Ukraine’s innovations in drone and electronic warfare, battlefield intelligence and the rapid adaptation of commercial technologies for military use have attracted growing attention from European defense planners, who see the country as a source of expertise, rather than merely a recipient of assistance.
The commission is using a program called Security Action for Europe (SAFE) to “fuse” the industries of the EU and Ukraine “to get the maximum synergies,” the official added.
The commission created SAFE a year ago and describes it as “the EU’s new financial instrument designed to provide financial support to member-states to speed up defense readiness by allowing urgent and major investments in support of the European defense industry, with a focus on closing critical capability gaps.” The program is “the first pillar” of the commission’s ReArm Europe Plan, which aims to unlock over €800 billion in defense spending across the EU.”
Separately from SAFE, the EU and its member-states have made available more than $200 billion in financial, military, humanitarian and refugee assistance to Ukraine since 2022. Through the end of 2025, the U.S. Congress authorized $188 billion in spending related to the war in Ukraine, but aid has now dried up.
Not only did the Trump administration’s refusal to continue supporting Ukraine’s defense push the EU to step up and accelerate its financing of weapons for Kyiv, but Europe’s realization over the past year that it can no longer take U.S. security guarantees for granted has led to a determination to rearm the continent at levels not seen in decades.
This reality “reinforces the necessity for Europe to have greater strategic independence,” the senior official said today. “And that’s translating into almost once-in-a-lifetime quantum leaps in defense expenditure in Europe.”
The official emphasized that the goal is not to replace NATO, but to ensure that Europe can shoulder far more responsibility for its own defense. That debate, once confined to policy circles in Brussels and a handful of other European capitals, has moved firmly into the political mainstream since Russia’s war and the uncertainty surrounding future U.S. commitments to the alliance.
Ukraine’s successes on the battlefield have brought “clarity in terms of what NATO membership would mean,” the official noted, pointing out that Ukraine would be a valuable asset for the alliance, rather than a burden. Most EU members also belong to NATO, whose headquarters is in Brussels as well.
It increasingly appears that Ukraine’s membership in the EU — and perhaps eventually NATO as well — may come sooner than conventional wisdom suggested just a few years ago. What was once framed primarily as a geopolitical gesture of solidarity is now being viewed by many European policymakers as a strategic necessity.
Speaking about the competitiveness of the European defense industry, the senior official said that Europe has long overinvested in “U.S. goods” and “we’ve often got shockingly poor value for money from our expenditure. We haven’t necessarily seen that expenditure translate into the strategic enablers in particular. We’ve still got a number of areas — space, air assets — where we are quite vulnerable.”
Those vulnerabilities have become more apparent as European governments confront the possibility of reduced American military engagement on the continent.
My visit to Brussels is part of a global tour to research a book on what type of international system might replace the so-called rules-based order. Some of what I learn along the way is worth sharing before the book is finished.
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Nicholas Kralev is the founder and executive director of the Washington International Diplomatic Academy, and a former Financial Times and Washington Times correspondent. His books include “Diplomatic Tradecraft,” “America’s Other Army” and “Diplomats in the Trenches.”