Ukraine’s defense industry is setting up shop in Denmark, offering Kyiv’s arms makers protection from Russian missiles and bringing their battlefield know-how to Europe.
Denmark’s industry and finance ministry announced earlier this month that Ukrainian defense company Fire Point was moving some production processes to the country, calling it an important step for Ukraine’s security that also “creates new opportunities for cooperation with Danish and European companies.”
It’s the first step in a new initiative called “Build for Ukraine,” to which Denmark has allocated more than $50 million to help Ukrainian defense firms start operations.
The project lets Ukrainian companies produce in more conventional ways rather than hiding or breaking up the production process to avoid being a target for Russian missiles and drones.
For Denmark and its allies, cooperation offers the firsthand experience of Ukrainian companies making weapons for a major war. That insight is invaluable.
Relief from Russian attacks
The project, for now, at least publicly, includes just one Ukrainian company. The firm, Fire Point, which also makes drones and missiles, plans to make rocket fuel in Denmark for Ukraine’s defense.
The rest of the Ukrainian companies churning out howitzers, missiles, drones, and more are still doing so domestically.
But it’s a step welcomed by the defense industry. Serhiy Goncharov, CEO of the National Association of Ukrainian Defense Industries (NAUDI), which represents about 100 companies, said that it gives Ukraine more production options, with reduced danger. The funding, he added, also helps Ukrainian producers who have much more capacity but are limited by Ukraine’s defense budget.
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Troels Lund Poulsen, Denmark’s defense minister, also pointed out that this new plan means “production cannot be stopped by Russian attacks.”
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In Ukraine, some production sites have been hit. The Malyshev Factory, which makes tanks, for example, has repeatedly been hit by Russian missiles, but it has been able to repair the damage and continue operations.
The new initiative would keep production much safer. Russia has previously threatened to strike Western targets, saying, for instance, that it could target any bases that host Ukraine’s F-16s. But it has launched no major attacks; doing so could trigger a major conflict with NATO.
In Denmark, the risk is much lower than in Ukraine, where companies have to plan for attacks, a tremendous hindrance.
Ukraine has to break up production
Gonchaov said that Ukrainian companies have to be mobile, ready to change their locations quickly, and have bomb shelters, steps that require extra planning and resources. He said that producers should ideally work underground, but that’s costly and not always an available option.
Losing machinery in attacks can result in months of delay and can potentially jeopardize the contracts that keep companies afloat. They can also cause the “heartbreaking” loss of skilled Ukrainian personnel, he said.
Misha Rudominski, CEO of Himera, a Ukrainian company that produces secure communications systems, told Business Insider the company has to split its manufacturing across different sites and keep its stock in another place.
That’s to avoid creating a big target “worth it” for Russia to hit. Many companies, he said, split production into “5, 10, 15 locations,” often with just a few dozen people at each site. Big, centralized operations are pretty rare, unless they’re underground, he said.
A boost for Denmark
Denmark views supporting Ukraine’s defense industry as a way to strengthen its own, particularly as it warns — like many other European nations — that Russia could attack a NATO country in the coming years.
Poulsen, when first announcing the Build for Ukraine initiative in June, said it “will provide the Danish Armed Forces with easier access to some of the newest technologies and experiences from Ukraine,” a challenge via some other means due to export controls.
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Denmark’s industry and business minister, Morten Bødskov, said that the new partnership “brings us much closer to realizing the great potential of the Danish defence industry.” By way of a “tragic” situation, he said, Ukraine’s defense industry has learned lessons and gained valuable experiences “that our own industry can now more easily benefit from.”
Denmark has previously expressed interest in learning from Ukraine’s industry. Poulsen told Business Insider in February that he wants Danish defense companies to work with and learn from Ukrainian ones so that they can “get some of the lessons learned from the defense companies in Ukraine back to Danish defense companies.”
“I think we have a lot to learn from Ukraine,” he said, particularly with regard to manufacturing at speed.
Denmark is not alone. NATO officials have praised Ukraine’s speed and innovation and said Western firms should take note.
How quickly the project can scale up is key for Ukraine, as it continues trying to defend against Russia’s much larger military. But it’s in Ukraine’s long-term interest, as it seeks to integrate itself further into Europe’s defense network.
That is something Denmark’s defense ministry noted in June, saying the initiative will ultimately “ensure a higher degree of integration of Ukraine into the European defence industry.”
Goncharov said Ukraine is keen to supportEuropean defense and is not just a place partners can send money or equipment, arguing Ukrainians “can provide our knowledge, our expertise, our technology to co-produce it for European needs abroad and also for Ukrainian needs,” he said.
