Wars are no longer won by strength alone, but by defense tech innovations. That’s the message from Anatolii Khrapchynskyi, military expert and deputy director general of an electronic warfare systems company, ArmyInform reports.
Earlier, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said that hoping for 1991 borders is impossible without a tech breakthrough. He believes that his country can only talk about a high-tech war of survival, “one that uses minimal human resources and minimal economic means to achieve maximum effect.” Given the demographics and economy, Ukraine is incapable of fighting any other kind of war.
Following the Second Ukraine–EU Defense Industry Forum, Khrapchynskyi called for the creation of a national Engineering Headquarters, a strategic center to fuel breakthrough innovations in Ukraine’s fight against Russia.
“Only then can we stand not just next to Thales or Rheinmetall, but speak with them as equals,” the expert emphasized.
The forum, hosted by the EU in Brussels, brought together top defense officials and industry leaders from both sides. Among the key participants were EU Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius, Ukraine’s Minister for Strategic Industries Herman Smetanin, EU High Representative Kaja Kallas, and Ukrainian presidential advisor Oleksandr Kamyshin.
“The goal of the forum was to shift from receiving ‘aid’ to engaging in ‘co-production’, from dependency to cooperation,” Khrapchynskyi said.
A major outcome was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ukrainian government and the Aerospace, Security and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD). A Ukraine–EU Defense Industrial Cooperation Task Force was also launched.
The European Union has become the largest state investor in Ukraine’s defense sector, directing €1.4 billion in proceeds from frozen Russian assets toward Ukrainian-made weaponry, including drones, artillery, and electronic warfare tools.
Khrapchynskyi stressed that Ukraine is not merely a proving testing ground for Western technology — it is becoming their creator.
Ukraine has built the world’s largest aircraft, the Mriia, crippled Russia’s Black Sea Fleet with Magura naval drones, is now carving out its own niches: reconnaissance systems, EW, drones, and adaptive weaponry.
“We’re no longer catching up. We’re setting the tone — the tone of voice — for the new defense reality,” Khrapchynskyi explained.
He warned that despite sleek presentations from Western firms, war demands simple, fast, and effective solutions, qualities that Ukrainian innovations already possess. The key now is to protect these technologies from being shadowed by large foreign defense corporations.
That is why Khrapchynskyi is advocating the idea of an “Engineering Headquarters”: a centralized command for defense innovation where front-line needs are rapidly translated into mass-produced solutions that are standardized, unified, and synchronized with Europe’s defense ecosystem.