4 years on: integrating lessons from Ukraine into European defence and resilience

As Russia’s full-scale invasion enters its fifth year – and more than a decade after the war began in 2014 – Europe is confronted not only with the imperative to sustain Ukraine, but with a deeper question: has Europe internalised the lessons of this war for its own defence and societal resilience?

Moderated by Thomas Van Vynckt, Head of Peace, Security & Defence, Friends of Europe, the debate brought together Boris Ruge, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy (PASP); Kateryna Mykhalko, Managing Director of the UXS Alliance and co-founder of Tech Force in Ukraine; Tomasz Husak, Director for Defence Policy at the European Commission (DG DEFIS); and Sebastian Holzer, Director for Emergency Response Ukraine at the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

Across institutional, industrial and civilian perspectives, a consistent message emerged: Ukraine is not only defending itself but shielding all Europe from Russian aggression. The past 4 years of war have exposed structural gaps in Europe’s preparedness and offer real-time lessons in modern warfare, innovation and whole-of-society resilience.

Boris Ruge opened with a stark 4-point assessment. First, Europe underestimated the ideological drivers behind Russia’s aggression and its willingness to employ sustained violence against civilians and critical infrastructure. Second, the nature of war has changed. Ukraine’s armed forces are operating at the forefront of large-scale, technology-enabled land warfare. Innovation cycles are short; adaptation is continuous and battlefield feedback loops shape capability development in real time. Third, the defence industrial base in Europe and North America has struggled to scale production at the required speed. The war has revealed a structural mismatch between peacetime industrial logic and wartime demand. Fourth and finally, resilience has proven decisive. Ukrainian society, having endured aggression since 2014, entered 2022 psychologically and politically prepared. Many European societies have yet to internalise the implications of sustained hybrid and conventional threats.

Kateryna Mykhalko offered an inside view of Ukraine’s wartime innovation ecosystem. Ukraine’s drone industry has expanded from a handful of producers in 2014 to over 400 companies today. The ecosystem integrates production, training and operational deployment. Producers work directly with military users, iterating technology based on frontline feedback within weeks rather than years. This rapid adaptation contrasts sharply with Europe’s procurement and investment models. While long-term planning and regulatory oversight remain essential, they risk becoming liabilities if not complemented by agile experimentation and scalable innovation pathways.

Mykhalko emphasised three structural shifts Europe must consider:

• Rebalancing investment between conventional platforms and emerging defence startups.
• Normalising defence investment, including greater openness from investors to fund defence technologies directly.
• Deepening EU-Ukraine industrial cooperation, including joint ventures and integrated value chains, particularly as Ukraine has begun enabling defence technology exports.

In her assessment, Europe and Ukraine represent a “perfect match” – Ukraine brings battlefield-tested agility and innovation; the EU brings scale, capital and industrial stability.

Tomasz Husak framed Europe’s defence landscape as paradoxical. Political recognition of the threat is strong and major initiatives are underway. Yet structural fragmentation remains – there are 27 defence markets and more than 120 weapons systems in use across the Union. The cost of fragmentation is significant, both financially and strategically. Greater integration of the European defence market could unlock tens of billions of euros annually while strengthening interoperability and scalability. Husak highlighted the European Commission’s Defence Transformation Roadmap and related initiatives aimed at integrating lessons from Ukraine – such as embedding agility, experimentation, user feedback and rapid adaptation into industrial policy frameworks.

However, technology and financing instruments alone are insufficient. Defence readiness also requires political readiness. Aligning member states around shared procurement, cross-border production and integrated markets remains the decisive test. As Europe debates unprecedented defence investment levels, a critical question remains: it is not only how much to spend, but how and where to spend it.

Sebastian Holzer shifted the focus to the civilian front. In Ukraine, resilience is not an abstract concept. It is embedded in civil society networks, volunteer structures, SMEs and digital governance systems. Digital public services have enabled continuity under attack. Energy systems are being decentralised to reduce vulnerability. Civil protection systems operate under sustained strain, responding to dozens of simultaneous incidents in major cities. Crucially, civil-military coordination is deeply integrated. Private sector actors collaborate with state institutions and security services. Feedback loops between battlefield needs and civilian production capacities are constant. Yet resilience carries a cost. Psychological fatigue, infrastructure damage and social strain are accumulating. Europe must draw lessons not only from Ukraine’s ability to endure, but from the structural investments that made endurance possible.

The debate also addressed the broader transatlantic context. While NATO and EU representatives reaffirmed sustained support for Ukraine, questions around financing, political cohesion and future integration remain sensitive.

Both Boris Ruge and Tomasz Husak emphasised that Ukraine’s future lies within the Euro-Atlantic family. Defence cooperation is already transforming the EU-Ukraine relationship from donor-recipient dynamics to a strategic partnership. Industrial integration, joint production and structured cooperation in defence value chains are increasingly central to that process.

Ukraine’s security is inseparable from Europe’s own. Support for Kyiv is not a peripheral policy choice but a central pillar of European deterrence. Integrating Ukraine into Europe’s defence and resilience ecosystem is not only about solidarity. It strengthens Europe’s own deterrence posture.

Recommendations:

The debate suggests several concrete avenues for action, particularly relevant to Europe’s ongoing defence investment discussions and Friends of Europe’s Spending Better work:

• Institutionalise EU-Ukraine defence innovation cooperation. Create a permanent, structured platform for joint testing, co-development and scaled production in areas such as unmanned systems, AI-enabled defence applications and dual-use technologies.

• Embed agility into European procurement. Complement long-term capability planning with flexible, rapid experimentation mechanisms that allow startups and SMEs to scale quickly and compete alongside established primes.

• Accelerate defence market integration. Advance reforms to procurement and transfer frameworks to reduce fragmentation and enable cross-border industrial cooperation at scale.

• Invest in European testing and training ecosystems. Develop dedicated testing corridors and advanced training infrastructures within the EU, drawing on Ukrainian operational expertise to maintain innovation momentum.

• Strengthen whole-of-society preparedness. Integrate civil protection, digital resilience and decentralised infrastructure planning more systematically into EU security frameworks, recognising that modern conflict blurs civilian and military domains.

• Align spending with evolving warfare. Ensure that new defence investments reflect the realities observed in Ukraine – scalable production, rapid innovation cycles, integrated ecosystems and resilience under sustained pressure.

Related content:

• Insight | Four years of war against Ukraine: the end of many illusions but also a chance finally to move on to a different future – Friends of Europe by Jamie Shea, Senior Fellow at Friends of Europe
• Insight | Ballots under fire: how foreign interference is testing Europe’s resilience by Gábor Iklódy, Senior Fellow at Friends of Europe
• Event | Europe’s decision time: the future of frozen Russian assets