The issue of easing employment regulations for foreign nationals seeking to work for Ukrainian companies, including state-owned enterprises, has been actively discussed in recent months. Kyrylo Budanov has emphasized that such measures could help businesses partially address the country’s growing workforce shortage.Over the past few years, Ukraine’s defense industry has achieved what once seemed impossible. Back in 2022, it was difficult to imagine that Ukraine would be home to dozens of new defense manufacturers, thousands of engineers, and hundreds of new technological solutions. Today, Ukraine has become one of the world’s leading hubs of military innovation. Production rates of unmanned systems, electronic warfare (EW) systems, signals intelligence (SIGINT) capabilities, and other defense technologies is now measured not in individual units – or even hundreds – but in thousands and hundreds of thousands every month.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.At the same time, another message is increasingly coming from the military: There is more technology, but not enough people. In reality, this challenge extends far beyond the front line. It affects the entire defense ecosystem – from combat units to manufacturing facilities.This is precisely why Ukraine is being forced to consider attracting foreign nationals, including for military service. According to data released in the spring of 2026, up to 20,000 foreign volunteers from more than a dozen countries are already serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). That represents approximately 2% of the country’s total military personnel.