Kubilius: Europe Free-Rode on America for 30 Years. Ukraine Changed That

In just three years, Ukraine scaled its annual defence production from roughly one billion euros to 50 billion euros. The EU Commissioner for Defence and Space argues that a combination of digital talent, demand-side doctrinal change and civil society mobilisation drove that transformation, and that the EU has not yet matched this model and therefore needs to bring Ukraine into its defence thinking.   At the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdańsk on 26 June 2026, Visegrad Insight editor-in-chief Wojciech Przybylski sat down with European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius for a wide-ranging conversation on what Europe can – and must – learn from Ukraine's military-industrial transformation. YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@visegradinsight⁠ Apple Podcasts: ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/visegrad-insight-podcast/id1515725435 Substack: ⁠https://visegradinsight.substack.com/podcast⁠ Subscribe to Visegrad Insight for access to all our content, live and online events: ⁠visegradinsight.eu⁠. Use code VISEGRAD35 for 35 per cent off a yearly subscription:⁠https://visegradinsight.eu/membership-account/membership-levels/⁠ Visegrad Insight is powered by the Res Publica Foundation, Warsaw.