Britain and Ukraine signed a partnership agreement in Kyiv that grants British researchers unprecedented access to Ukraine's battlefield data platform and to the 'Avengers' (Avengers Labs) artificial intelligence laboratories. According to the United Kingdom government, this makes Britain the first international partner to receive such access. The document was signed by British Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Signing of the Agreement in Kyiv
The agreement formalizes bilateral cooperation in the fields of defense technology and artificial intelligence. The British government clarified that the partnership will initially focus on defense and national security projects. Under the initiative, researchers, engineers, technology companies, and military experts from both countries are planned to be brought together to work on pilot projects aimed at improving the efficiency of battlefield management.
Access to the 'Avengers' Laboratory
A key element of the agreement was the British side's access to Ukraine's 'Avengers' AI laboratories. As Ukraine's Ministry of Defense reported earlier in August, Avengers Labs was built on an annotated dataset of five million battlefield images. A significant portion of this data was obtained from the domestic DELTA military combat system — a battlefield management and situational awareness system that records information on tanks, artillery systems, drones, and other military targets.
How the AI System Works
Artificial intelligence models trained on the aforementioned data are already being used in an automated target-detection system. According to available information, the system analyzes more than 100,000 drone video recordings each month and is capable of identifying around 70% of enemy targets in real time. Granting access to such infrastructure to foreign partners is seen as a step toward integrating British and Ukrainian defense technology supply chains.
Context: Storm Shadow Missiles and the July 27 Visit
The signing of the agreement fits within a broader course of deepening defense and technology cooperation. It was previously reported that Ukraine intends to produce long-range Storm Shadow missiles independently, while Britain has officially approved the transfer of the corresponding technologies and the involvement of defense enterprises. In addition, the British government allowed defense company MBDA to disclose classified information about British components of the long-range SCALP missile. The political context was laid on July 27, when Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during a visit to Britain, met with the new Prime Minister Andy Burnham — this was the first visit by the Ukrainian team to Britain after Burnham took office.
