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LVIV, Ukraine — The buzz of drones competed with the din of investor chatter last month at the Lviv Arena stadium.
The 2025 edition of the Defense Tech Valley summit, held on Sept. 16 and 17, gathered more than 5,000 participants from 50 countries. Organizers called it the largest defense technology event in Ukraine’s history.
For Kyiv, the conference wasn’t just a showcase but rather a signal to its allies, particularly in Washington, that Ukraine’s battle-tested drone industry is now a partner worthy of investment and collaboration.
“Nobody knows more about the modern war than Ukraine, and nobody has created more technologies specifically for this war than Ukraine,” said Artem Moroz, head of investor relations at Brave1, the government-backed cluster organizing the event.
His words carried weight in a hall that included executives from Airbus, Saab, Baykar and dozens of American venture funds scouting technologies forged in daily combat against the Russian army.
A global hub under fire
Over two days, Ukrainian companies exhibited more than 230 innovations: interceptor drones; artificial-intelligence-powered UAVs, or unmanned aerial vehicles; unmanned ground vehicles; electronic warfare systems; and laser defenses designed to neutralize Iranian-made Shahed drones.
Visitors tested robotic platforms across obstacle courses mimicking urban destruction and wooded terrain while military officers explained what works and what fails on the front lines.
The format underscores Ukraine’s unique selling point: combat validation.
“We want to make sure that once we identify those technologies, they get into the front line as fast as possible and then scale them as much as possible,” Mr. Moroz said.
That real-time feedback loop, unheard of in Western procurement systems, has turned Ukraine into what Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov calls a “global hub for defense technologies.”
U.S. investors take the lead
The summit also produced hard numbers. Mr. Moroz announced the creation of the largest publicly disclosed defense tech fund in Ukraine’s history: $15 million directed to a company developing swarming drone autonomy. The U.S. led the round.
Four memorandums of understanding worth more than $100 million were signed, most with foreign capital, signaling what organizers hope is just the beginning of a steady flow of Western money into Ukraine’s defense ecosystem.
Washington has begun laying the groundwork. In July, Kyiv disclosed it was in advanced talks on a drone investment deal with the U.S. in which American capital would scale Ukrainian production in exchange for procurement rights to battlefield-tested systems.
The Pentagon awarded Sierra Nevada Corp. a $15 million contract to sustain Ukraine’s counter-UAV programs, underscoring parallel emphasis on neutralizing Russian drones.
Operational urgency in Europe
Drone incursions over NATO airspace have multiplied in recent weeks.
In September, Poland reported up to 23 Russian drones entering its territory in a single night, prompting airspace closures in Warsaw and Lublin and forcing Warsaw to invoke Article 4 of the NATO treaty for consultations.
Denmark also has endured repeated disruptions, including drones forcing the closure of Copenhagen and Aalborg airports. Authorities described it as a “hybrid attack.”
These events have accelerated projects once stalled in bureaucratic circles. In London, the government announced Project Octopus, a plan to mass-produce Ukrainian-designed interceptor drones at a rate of “thousands per month.”
In Brussels, defense ministers pushed forward a continental “drone wall,” a layered system of sensors and interceptors intended to protect the European Union’s eastern flank.
Zelenskyy’s American pitch
If Lviv was designed to impress Europe’s investors, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s next stop was aimed squarely at the United States.
Days after Defense Tech Valley, he traveled to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly, where he courted American businesses such as Amazon and J.P. Morgan in a high-profile roundtable.
Reuters reported that he pitched Ukraine’s defense sector as a growth engine and stressed that more than 300 Ukrainian firms now produce drones at wartime scale.
Mr. Zelenskyy told executives that Ukraine would soon reveal a “managed arms export” strategy, opening sales of new technologies only to trusted partners. “We will open up exports of our new technologies only to those countries that we can count on,” he said while underscoring that the front line remains the priority.
He highlighted the launch of a $150 million investment fund with the U.S. International Development Finance Corp., part of a broader minerals and defense cooperation package.
The president’s pitch dovetailed with Defense Tech Valley’s message that Ukraine is not merely a recipient of Western military aid but is also a co-developer of systems Kyiv’s allies will increasingly need for their own security.
A fast-paced innovation cycle
Behind the fanfare lies a fast-paced innovation cycle where each new drone or electronic warfare countermeasure is met with a fresh adaptation.
Analysts estimate that Ukraine loses 10,000 drones per month, yet its industry has scaled from a few thousand units in 2022 to more than 2 million in 2024.
Western observers, including technologists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and planners at the Pentagon, are closely studying how Kyiv’s decentralized production model outpaces traditional procurement.
Mr. Moroz acknowledges Ukraine’s limits.
“We are less experienced in scaling, in building a big defense business. So we have something to offer and we have something to ask for. This is the place where we want to build these connections and, first of all, the trust,” he said.
The formula appears to be working: American venture funds are circling Ukrainian technologies, including jammer-resistant drones and AI-guided FPVs, or first-person view, drones.
From assistance to co-engineering
For Ukraine, the message to allies is clear: This is no longer a one-way flow of aid. “This is not about somebody trying to use other experience but really about finding a win-win solution for both parties,” Mr. Moroz said.
That logic is starting to resonate in Washington.
Ukrainian startups such as FirePoint Innovations and Dwarf Engineering, highlighted at Defense Tech Valley, are in discussions with U.S. defense primes. With Mr. Zelenskyy himself pitching American boardrooms, Kyiv hopes to transform its drone sector from wartime improvisation into a sustainable global industry.
The shift marks a subtle but significant evolution: The U.S. is not just arming Ukraine but is also beginning to co-develop with it. Defense Tech Valley is the latest sign that the partnership will expand to billions of dollars in joint ventures in the coming years.
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