MOSCOW, September 20. /TASS/. Ukraine and the European Union have opened a joint defense innovation office, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced.

"Today, together with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, we opened the EU Defense Innovation Office," he wrote on Facebook (banned in Russia, owned by the Meta corporation, recognized as extremist in Russia).

"We are putting a special focus on joint developments in the field of IT and weapons," he added.

According to him, the so-called IT coalition of 13 countries has already attracted more than 70 million euros for the needs of Ukraine, and the "drone coalition" of 16 participating countries "has secured over 500 million euros in funding and delivered thousands of drones to Ukraine."

Umerov claims that today "more than 500 Ukrainian drone manufacturers and thousands of developers create advanced solutions for combat operations."

Earlier, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced during her visit to Kiev that the European Commission would provide Kiev with a loan of 35 billion euros as part of the agreements of the G7 countries, which, according to the European Commission's plan, should be paid with funds raised from the profits of Russia's frozen assets.