Today at the Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting in Ramstein, defence ministers got an overview of the activities of the IT Coalition, led by Estonia and Luxembourg, which aims at boosting the IT capabilities of the Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“The work of the IT Coalition is off to a great start – already 11 countries have joined and negotiations are underway for further states joining. The first procurement processes have already been initiated,” said Pevkur. “As the future of Ukraine is in NATO, together we are also helping to bring the ICT of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in compliance with NATO standards. Additionally, the IT Coalition supports all other capability coalitions, because information and communication technologies are an important part of ensuring success on the battlefield.”
The IT Coalition currently includes 11 states (Estonia, Luxembourg, Ukraine, Belgium, Netherlands, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Denmark, Ukraine and the United Kingdom). Over 38 million euros have been committed in support within the coalition. Moreover, participating states have also provided Ukraine with ICT assistance in the form of servers and other necessary equipment.
In addition to the IT Coalition, the Ramstein meeting today focused on the activities of the other capability coalitions and the newest assistance packages that the Allies are providing. “Along with many other Allies, we are getting ready to announce new aid packages, however, it is clear that we all have to do more, because the threat of the Russian war machine picking up speed is clearly higher now, after the so-called elections, than it was last week,” noted minister Pevkur.
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Photo: IT Coalition | Kaitseministeerium | Flickr