Ukraine’s Enhanced Partnership with the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) has great potential. The country is ready to deepen it in a number of areas.

Minister of Defence of Ukraine Evgeniy Khmara said this in an address to participants in the JEF meeting.

The head of the Ministry of Defence thanked all the participating countries for their support.

«Ukraine is ready to build a mutually beneficial partnership with you. We need it. So does the security of our region. And of the entire continent. Our shared future lies in this partnership», Evgeniy Khmara said.

The Minister of Defence set out specific areas for deepening the partnership between Ukraine and the JEF.

Evgeniy Khmara stressed that Ukraine’s experience overlaps directly with the JEF mandate. That mandate covers countering UAVs and hybrid threats in the Baltic and North Atlantic regions, as well as protecting undersea infrastructure and countering Russia’s shadow fleet.

The Minister of Defence noted that Ukraine has built solutions that work in real combat:

  • mass-produced, low-cost interceptor drones;
  • detection systems;
  • integration of data from different sources into a single real-time air picture.

Evgeniy Khmara said that these are exactly the technologies and practical experience needed to protect the Baltic Sea and critical undersea infrastructure from the same threat that JEF countries already face.

The JEF is a multinational expeditionary force established in 2015 at the initiative of the United Kingdom. It also includes Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.