Ukraine has signed a drone deal with Latvia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, making it the latest arrangement that Kyiv has been working on with other countries to share military technology.
Zelenskyy confirmed the agreement in a June 9 post on X, following his meeting with Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs in Tallinn, Estonia.
These kinds of deals “strengthen our joint defense and co-production, and, importantly, this also means Ukraine’s expertise and experience helping to strengthen our partners,” Zelenskyy said.
“This is exactly the kind of systemic cooperation we are building with those who have consistently supported us throughout all the years of Russia’s war. Ukraine is interested in ensuring that every region of Europe has sufficient protection against Russian threats.”
The Ukrainian president was in the Latvian capital to meet with the prime ministers from the Nordic–Baltic states, known as the NB8, which is comprised of five Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, as well as the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
In a joint statement after the summit, the NB8 said cooperation with Ukraine would focus on integrating Kyiv’s battlefield experience, training, and information sharing, along with technological and defense-industrial cooperation.
‘We Need to Protect Our Skies’
Zelenskyy met with Kulbergs on the sidelines of the summit, with the Latvian premier telling a joint press conference with Zelenskyy and the other HB8 leaders, “We need to protect our skies, and nobody knows how to do that better than Ukraine.”Kulbergs later described the deal as a “comprehensive cooperation in the field of defense,” writing on X that “Latvia will adopt Ukraine’s unique combat experience in airspace defense against drone attacks.”
“Together, we are strengthening Baltic and European security.”
He continued that the agreement will allow his country to strengthen it defense capabilities against drones. Kulbergs added that the militaries of both countries will collaborate, sharing knowledge, resources, and experience in a bid to strengthen mutual defense.
“This agreement will give us immediate access to technologies (a green corridor), knowledge, and the launch of joint production, but most importantly, the immediate arrival of [Ukrainian] anti-drone combat unit experts in [Latvia],” he said.
According to a statement from the office of the president of Ukraine, this is the sixth agreement of its kind with partners.
Deals in Europe, Middle East
Since the start of the Iran war on Feb. 28, Zelenskyy has leveraged Ukraine’s expertise in drone defense systems and warfare into a series of deals during visits to Europe and the Middle East.Zelenskyy said on March 11 that Kyiv has sent specialists to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates to help them combat these Iranian drone attacks.
Kyiv says the Russian military has used thousands of drones, based on the Iranian-designed Shahed aircraft, in Ukraine over the past four years.
“E3 countries will help us with anti-ballistic capabilities. By the way, I hope that we will manage to develop a European anti-ballistic system together with the UK. We are working on it. We need it, and the UK needs it,” he said in the post.