Ukraine offers its front line as test bed for foreign weapons

Ukrainian service members walk next to a launcher of a Patriot air defense system, in an undisclosed location, Ukraine Aug. 4, 2024. (Reuters/File)
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Updated 17 July 2025
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Ukraine offers its front line as test bed for foreign weapons

  • Moroz said there has been strong interest in the scheme, but did not name any companies
  • Ukraine is betting on a budding defense industry, fueled in part by foreign investment

WIESBADEN, Germany, : Ukraine will let foreign arms companies test out their latest weapons on the front line of its war against Russia’s invasion, Kyiv’s state-backed arms investment and procurement group Brave1 said on Thursday.

Under the “Test in Ukraine” scheme, companies would send their products to Ukraine, give some online training on how to use them, then wait for Ukrainian forces to try them out and send back reports, the group said in a statement.

“It gives us understanding of what technologies are available. It gives companies understanding of what is really working on the front line,” Artem Moroz, Brave1’s head of investor relations, told Reuters at a defense conference in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Moroz said there has been strong interest in the scheme, but did not name any companies that have signed on to use it and declined to go into more detail on how it would operate or what, if any, costs would be involved.

More than three years after their invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces are pressing a grinding offensive across the sprawling, more than 1,000-km (620-mile) front line and intensifying air strikes on Ukrainian cities.

Ukraine is betting on a budding defense industry, fueled in part by foreign investment, to fend off Russia’s bigger and better-armed war machine.

Brave1 — set up by the government in 2023 with an online hub where Ukrainian defense companies can seek investment, and also where Ukrainian military units can order up arms — had drawn up a list of the military technologies it wanted to test, Moroz added.

“We have a list of priorities. One of the top of those would be air defense, like new air defense capabilities, drone interceptors, AI-guided systems, all the solutions against gliding bombs,” he said.

Unmanned systems in the water and electronic profile systems on the ground are also on Ukraine’s list of priorities, as are advanced fire control systems or AI guidance to make howitzers more accurate.


UN chief calls Ukraine war ‘a stain on our collective conscience’

Updated 4 sec ago
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UN chief calls Ukraine war ‘a stain on our collective conscience’

  • Guterres warned that the fighting posed direct risks to the safe and secure operation of Ukraine’s nuclear sites

WASHINGTON: Four years ‌after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the war there remained “as a ​stain on our collective conscience” and reiterated calls for an immediate ceasefire. In remarks for a session of the United Nations Security Council to mark the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion, Guterres commended the efforts of the United States and others to end ‌the war, but ‌said concrete measures were ​needed ‌to ⁠de-escalate ​and create space ⁠for diplomacy.
Referring to Russia’s invasion, Guterres said: “We have witnessed the cascading consequences of this blatant violation of international law.”
He said more than 15,000 civilians had been killed in Ukraine since the start of the war ⁠and over 41,000 hurt. Among those killed ‌or hurt were ‌3,200 children.
Guterres’ remarks were ​read on his ‌behalf by Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN under-secretary-general for ‌peacebuilding.
Guterres warned that the fighting posed direct risks to the safe and secure operation of Ukraine’s nuclear sites, and added: “This unconscionable game of ‌nuclear roulette must cease immediately.”
He urged UN member states to fully fund ⁠humanitarian assistance ⁠and said that any settlement to the war must uphold the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.
“Enough with the death. Enough with the destruction. Enough with the broken lives and shattered futures,” he added.
“It is time for an immediate, full and unconditional ceasefire – the first step toward a just ​peace that ​saves lives and ends the endless suffering.