European Union Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius has called for the integration of Ukraine’s armed forces into the planned European Defence Union, describing the country’s military as a decisive element for securing the bloc’s eastern flank. The intervention places Kyiv’s battle-tested military at the centre of the EU’s emerging defence architecture.
Ukrainian officials argue that after more than four years of full-scale war with Russia, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (ZSU) have become the continent’s first line of defence. The conflict, they note, is the largest conventional war in Europe since 1945, and the ZSU have withstood a numerically superior adversary that has sustained staggering losses.
Europe’s largest battle-hardened force
With approximately 900,000 personnel, Ukraine’s military is the biggest standing army in Europe. According to estimates by the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Russian forces have lost around 1.2 million troops killed, wounded or missing since 2022, at a ratio of roughly 2.5 Russian soldiers for every Ukrainian casualty. Ukrainian defence officials say that battlefield effectiveness has been achieved through rapid adaptation and deep defensive resilience.
Kyiv’s commanders contend that no European strategy can guarantee the security of the eastern flank without integrating this operational experience. They point out that no other European army has fought a prolonged high-intensity conventional war against Russia—the principal military threat to European security—and that without Ukrainian know-how, deterrence structures would remain incomplete.
Technological innovation under fire
Ukrainian forces have pioneered the mass use of drones, unmanned sea vessels, electronic warfare systems and artificial intelligence for target designation. Platforms such as the domestically developed DELTA situational awareness system are refined directly in combat, creating what Ukrainian planners call a “laboratory of modern high-tech warfare.”
These capabilities have been demonstrated in NATO exercises, including Red Team operations, where Ukrainian units employing drone-centric tactics exposed vulnerabilities in traditional methods. European allies, only beginning large-scale adoption of similar technologies, can use such exchanges to optimise budgets and accelerate adaptation to future battlefields, Ukrainian officials say.
Commissioner Kubilius’s public backing of Ukraine’s inclusion in the European Defence Union reflects a growing institutional acknowledgement of that advantage. Integrating the ZSU, Kyiv argues, would provide Europe with a ready-made collective defence component, slashing the time and cost required to strengthen the eastern flank. It would also bring together Western equipment and Ukrainian innovation, reinforcing the resilience of frontline states such as Poland and the Baltic nations against potential Russian aggression.
Ukrainian defence authorities maintain that their forces are not just a recipient of security but a net provider of it—offering a new model of deterrence shaped by years of active combat. Without that contribution, they warn, the future European defence framework risks remaining declaratory rather than operational.
