Bendlerblock German–Ukrainian Roundtable: "Deep Precision Strike Beyond 500 km" Named as Cooperation Domain
Berlin, 28 April 2026
Key points
- German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil and Economics Minister Katherina Reiche convened a roundtable at the Bendlerblock on 28 April with Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov (digital) and approximately 40 representatives from German industry and finance
- Pistorius identified "Deep Precision Strike — effect beyond 500 km at high velocity" as a domain of high cooperation potential between German and Ukrainian firms; European Sky Shield Initiative expansion to interceptor drones also named; Brave1 cooperation framework referenced
- Reiche announced the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs will set up a contact point for German firms interested in cooperation with Ukraine and is examining whether export-credit guarantees can be expanded to support such activity
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil and Economics Minister Katherina Reiche convened a roundtable at the Bendlerblock on 28 April with Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov (joining digitally) and approximately 40 representatives from German industry and finance — naming "Deep Precision Strike — effect beyond 500 km at high velocity" as a domain of high cooperation potential between German and Ukrainian firms, and elevating the bilateral defence-industrial relationship from a defence-ministry file to a four-ministry plus private-finance configuration.
The Bendlerblock roundtable agreed lines of work on identifying additional technology fields and lighthouse projects for joint research, development and production. Pistorius named Deep Precision Strike at velocities beyond 500 kilometres as a priority domain; expansion of the European Sky Shield Initiative to interceptor drones was discussed alongside the Brave1 cooperation framework. Economics Minister Reiche announced that the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs will set up a contact point for German firms interested in cooperation with Ukraine and is examining whether export-credit guarantees can be expanded to support such activity.
The four-ministry configuration is the architectural change. Finance, Economics, Defence and the Ukrainian Defence Ministry sitting around the same table with private-finance representatives places the bilateral relationship on a structural footing the previous defence-ministry-only format could not sustain. The €144.9 billion German defence-budget envelope confirmed the same week (with €188.4 billion projected by 2030 against 3.7% of GDP) is the fiscal backdrop the roundtable sits inside.
The Bendlerblock format is the precursor to the Brave Germany framework that Pistorius would sign with Fedorov in Kyiv on 11 May. The structural reading is that German industrial integration with Ukrainian operational design is being staged through formal multi-ministerial events with named workstreams — the inversion of the conventional arms-export pattern, with German prime authority and German industrial real estate paired with Ukrainian operational design. A trajectory first surfaced in Signal No. 48.
Related · German–Ukrainian defence-industrial integration
Berlin Defence Week launches Build with Ukraine and four German–Ukrainian JVs (14–15 April 2026)
Pistorius signs Brave Germany in Kyiv; joint drones to 1,500 km, DELTA integration (11 May 2026)
Norway–Ukraine three-stage sequence brings Ukrainian-drone co-production into allied industrial base (14–28 April 2026)
Sources: Bundesministerium der Verteidigung, Bundesministerium der Finanzen, Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz, Ministry of Defence of Ukraine.
First reported in Signal No. 48, 28 April 2026.