Estonia, Luxembourg, Ukraine launch IT coalition to support Ukraine

TALLINN – Estonia, Luxembourg and Ukraine launched an IT coalition, which will support the Ukrainian defense forces in the cyber domain in an effort to strengthen Ukraine’s capacity to defend itself, at the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) meeting in Ramstein, Germany, on Tuesday.

"The role of information and communication technology in this war is certainly harder to perceive, since the kinetic activities on the front are much more visible. Nevertheless, actions in the cyber domain are significant amplifiers for what happens on the physical battlefield. It is a pleasure and honor for Estonia to be able to put competencies gained as an e-state to good use in supporting Ukraine," Minister of Defense Hanno Pevkur said.

“The IT coalition will focus on the delivery of a secure and resilient IT infrastructure for the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the defense forces, which enables Ukraine to be more efficient and effective on the battlefield. We are grateful to Estonia and Luxembourg for their leadership in driving this initiative forward. I would also like to thank Belgium, Latvia, Lithuania and Denmark for joining us in this endeavor and to Luxembourg for already announcing the first pledge to the IT coalition," Minister of Defense of Ukraine Rustem Umerov said.

In addition to Estonia, Luxembourg and Ukraine, Belgium, Lithuania and Denmark also signed the declaration of intent at the IT coalition launch event.

"The objective of the event today was also to provide allies with more information about the coalition in order to involve further states, since joined forces are always stronger. A number of states were interested in the coalition and the goal is to expand the circle of contributing states rapidly," Pevkur added.