IT Coalition established by Estonia and Luxembourg to help Ukraine has raised about 500 million euros in its first year of operation

Today's IT Coalition Steering Group meeting in Luxembourg summed up the Coalition's first year of support for Ukraine and reviewed Ukraine's top priorities for the coming year.

"Ukraine requires our help to meet critical ICT needs for its defence. Technological support is an essential part of the modern combat capability on the whole, which we are working together to strengthen. The leadership of the Coalition is based on a long-standing and excellent cooperation with the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as well as Estonia's role as an advocate of the importance of cyberspace," explained Tuuli Duneton, Undersecretary for Defence Policy, who co-chaired the meeting.

The participants of the Steering Group meeting clarified the way forward for the Coalition, including connections between the field of ICT and other capabilities of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, discussed how to accelerate procurement procedures for the Coalition, and reviewed the latest achievements in the development of Ukraine's ICT and cyberspace capabilities.

"While the Coalition's progress over the course of the year has been remarkable, we urged Coalition member states to start thinking today about their 2025 contributions," added Duneton.

A joint effort by the IT Coalition has delivered 102.7 million euros worth of ICT assistance to Ukraine. In total, 410 million euros worth of ICT aid has been contributed by individual member states and 72 million euros has been raised for joint procurement. This year, support has been provided for Ukraine's needs of improvement of tactical communications, expansion of data centres and enhancement of cybersecurity.

In addition to co-chairing the IT Coalition with Luxembourg, Estonia has contributed 2.5 million euros to the Coalition this year to support the Ukrainian mobilisation system. In 2025, Estonia will contribute 5 million euros to the IT Coalition.

The IT Coalition was founded in September 2023 at the meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Ramstein to support the defence forces and the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine in the field of information and communication technologies and to contribute to Ukraine's combat capability. To date, 17 countries have already joined the IT Coalition (the leading countries being Estonia and Luxembourg, with Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Latvia, Sweden, Finland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom), with Canada set to join and the US and France supporting the activities of the Coalition. NATO and EU experts also participate in the Coalition's activities.

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