KYIV, July 15 (Reuters) - Ukraine and the European Union have sealed a "drone deal" to combine Kyiv's expertise with European industrial capacity to establish joint projects and scale up production, European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.
"We need to combine our strengths," von der Leyen said in a speech in Kyiv at a ceremony to mark the countryss Statehood Day. "This deal will bring together Ukrainian ingenuity and Europe's industrial scale."
Ukraine has signed a series of such deals with individual countries. At last week's NATO summit in Akara, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed three more, saying that brought the total to nine.
But Wednesday's deal is the first agreement intended to cover countries and companies across the European Union.
"The knowledge you have gained on how to work drone and anti-drone systems is truly unique," von der Leyen said, addressing Zelenskiy.
"We must tap into this together. Because we know the threats that Europe faces in this area – we have seen incursions and alerts across many (EU) member states," she added.
Von der Leyen said the EU could offer advantages to Ukraine such as "huge technological and industrial capacity" and "safe and secure production sites".
Ukraine has developed a highly sophisticated drone industry after having only limited expertise in the sector when Russia invaded its smaller neighbour in February 2022.
Zelenskiy has travelled widely to promote drone deals, particularly in the Middle East, where Gulf countries have been keen to tap into Ukrainian expertise to counter Iranian strikes.
(Reporting by Andrew Gray, editing by Bart Meijer)
