Ukraine’s Wartime Experience Draws European Interest: GLOBSEC Forum Highlights the Speed of Decision-Making and the Role of Industry

During the GLOBSEC Defence Forum 2026 in Prague, representatives of  “Steel Front”, an initiative by Rinat Akhmetov, discussed with NATO delegations, military officials, and representatives of the European defense industry the lessons learned from Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.

One of the central topics of the discussion was the ability of states and industries to adapt quickly to the conditions of war.

Metinvest Group CEO Yuriy Ryzhenkov said that Ukraine’s experience has shown that in a modern conflict, not only technology or weapons are critically important, but also the availability of skilled industrial personnel and the speed of decision-making.

According to him, European countries went through decades of deindustrialization, losing part of their technical professions.
“European countries have lived in conditions of deindustrialization for decades – losing welders, electricians, and engineers. But the war shows that these people are the most valuable. Without them, there would be neither battlefield nor a frontline”, – said Ryzhenkov.

Ryzhenkov also emphasized that modern warfare extends far beyond the purely military sphere. According to him, alongside the Armed Forces, industry, business, and civilian manufacturing play a crucial role in a country’s ability to resist aggression. He noted that a full-scale war forces the state, private companies, and industry to operate by entirely different rules, quickly restructuring processes and production to meet defense needs. In his opinion, this experience is precisely what interests European countries today, as many of them have not faced a large-scale war for decades.

The participants of the discussion noted that in Ukraine, after 2022, not only the military, but also industry, engineers and volunteers became part of the defense ecosystem. According to them, this made it possible to reduce the time for developing and implementing new solutions.

Metinvest Group’s Chief Operating Officer, Oleksandr Myronenko, said that after the start of the full-scale invasion, the company changed its management approach and reduced bureaucratic procedures as part of Rinat Akhmetov’s “Steel Front” initiative.

According to him, processes that could previously take years – from approving specifications to testing – now take weeks thanks to faster decision-making and horizontal interaction.

He added that this allowed the company to redirect part of its production toward manufacturing goods for the front line – in particular, armor plates, protective structures for military equipment, and underground shelters.

The Forum also discussed the readiness of European industry for potential large-scale security challenges. In this context, Ukraine’s experience of rapidly restructuring production attracted considerable interest among representatives of the defense sector.

Reference:

GLOBSEC Defence Forum is an international security forum that brings together thousands of leaders from governments, NATO, military command, defense industry and expert circles to discuss issues of war, security and defense policy.

Rinat Akhmetov’s “Steel Front” is a joint military initiative of SCM businesses, created after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Within its framework, Ukrainian enterprises (primarily Metinvest) produce and transfer to the army armored steel, protective structures, underground shelters, command posts and equipment for the protection of critical infrastructure.
Rinat Akhmetov’s “Steel Front” is a joint military initiative of SCM businesses, created after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Within this initiative, Ukrainian enterprises (primarily Metinvest) manufacture and supply the Armed Forces with armored steel, protective structures, underground shelters, command posts, and equipment for protecting critical infrastructure.

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