Clearing the skies: scaling Europe’s drone and counter-drone innovation

Timothy Ash is an associate fellow in the Russia and Eurasia programme at Chatham House and a senior sovereign strategist at RBC Bluebay Asset Management in London. Ash has worked as a professional economist for more than 30 years, with 20 of those years in banking, working for institutions such as RBS, Bear Stearns, Nomura, and ICBC Standard Bank among others. Ash’ specialism is emerging European economics, as related to fixed income investments. He writes and blogs extensively on economic challenges and his articles are published in the Kyiv Post, Atlantic Council, the Financial Times and the United Business Journal. He has advised various governments on Ukraine-Russia policy and specifically on the impact of sanctions.

Valeriya Ionan currently serves as Advisor to the Minister of Defence of Ukraine and Advisor to the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, focusing on innovation, digitalisation, and building global partnerships to scale Ukraine’s technology and innovation ecosystem. She is a government and business innovator working at the intersection of public sector transformation, emerging technologies, and global partnerships. From 2019 to 2025, Ionan served as Deputy Minister for Digital Transformation of Ukraine, where she led key national initiatives in innovation, entrepreneurship, education, and international cooperation. During this time, she spearheaded the development of flagship initiatives, including Diia.Business, Diia.Education, CDTO Campus, Digital State UA, and GGTC Kyiv, launched in partnership with the World Economic Forum’s C4IR Network. She also coordinated international partnerships and represented Ukraine in negotiations on the EU accession chapter on Digital and Media. Ionan is the architect of Ukraine’s Global Innovation Strategy — WINWIN, aimed at positioning Ukraine as a global hub for technology, defence innovation, and entrepreneurship. She has also contributed to launching and scaling initiatives such as Brave1, United24 Media, and other innovation-driven projects connecting Ukraine with global partners.

Paola Sartori is a Policy Officer at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space (DG DEFIS), in the Unit for Defence Policy and Innovation. She previously worked at the European Defence Agency (EDA) as Policy Officer for Industry Engagement in the Industry, Synergies and Enablers Directorate. Before that, she was a Research Fellow at Italy’s Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) in the Security and Defence Programme.

Dharmendra Kanani is Director of Policy & Programmes and Chief Spokesperson at Friends of Europe. Prior to joining Friends of Europe, Dharmendra was director of policy at the European Foundation Centre (EFC). He was the England director at the Big Lottery Fund, the largest independent funder in the UK and fourth largest in the world. Dharmendra has held senior positions in the public and voluntary sectors and advisor to numerous ministerial policy initiatives across the UK.