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Kubilius: Europe Free-Rode on America for 30 Years. Ukraine Changed That
Description
In just three years, Ukraine scaled its annual defence production from roughly one billion euros to 50 billion euros. The EU Commissioner for Defence and Space argues that a combination of digital talent, demand-side doctrinal change and civil society mobilisation drove that transformation, and that the EU has not yet matched this model and therefore needs to bring Ukraine into its defence thinking.
At the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdańsk on 26 June 2026, Visegrad Insight editor-in-chief Wojciech Przybylski sat down with European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius for a wide-ranging conversation on what Europe can – and must – learn from Ukraine's military-industrial transformation.
0:00 Introduction: recording live from Gdańsk, Ukraine Recovery Conference 20260:59 Is Europe living through a moment that fundamentally changes the European project?1:34 Why the shift away from US dependency is now unavoidable4:18 Ukraine's drone revolution: digital talent, demand-side doctrine and Mykhailo Fedorov7:54 SAFE instrument: catching up or innovating?9:13 Eastern flank countries and the shared burden of continental defence12:21 Defence as a European public good: Eastern Flank Watch and the path to EDPCI status13:24 Are Europe's strategies speaking to each other? 14:26 Article 42.7 and the whole-society approach16:51 Cutting military construction permits from 4 years to 100 days
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