A parliamentary roundtable examining the UK/EU-Ukraine Defence Innovation Corridor is to be held at Portcullis House on 23 June 2026, bringing together parliamentarians, defence industry leaders, and Ukrainian representatives.
The event, hosted by Graeme Downie MP and organised by Tech Connecta Vertex and Stephen Hoffman Consulting, will feature a keynote from the Rt Hon Luke Pollard MP, Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry.
It is aimed at examining how the corridor concept can deepen defence collaboration between the United Kingdom, Ukraine, and European partners, with a particular focus on translating Ukraine’s battlefield experience into broader industrial and procurement reform.
Downie said the initiative represented “a vital step forward in our shared security architecture,” adding that the roundtable was intended to ensure “frontline insights from Ukraine directly inform and upgrade the UK’s own defence readiness.” He called for a move away from “slow, traditional cycles” in favour of “a genuinely agile partnership that strengthens defence industrial collaboration across Europe.”
Dmytro Danchenko, founder of the corridor initiative, framed the effort in similarly direct terms. “True defence innovation requires us to dismantle bureaucratic silos and link our technology ecosystems directly,” he said. “This corridor is designed to provide a fast-track pathway for agile companies, allowing next-generation capabilities to be co-developed, scaled and deployed at the speed of relevance.”
The agenda covers industrial collaboration across the UK, Ukraine, and Europe; joint technology development; the integration of SMEs into procurement pathways; and alignment with NATO’s broader defence industrial goals. The inclusion of smaller firms is part of an effort to accelerate the flow of innovative capability from agile companies into defence supply chains, a challenge that Ukraine’s conflict experience has sharpened considerably.
