Ukraine signed an artificial-intelligence (AI) defense partnership with the UK on Monday, Aug. 24, granting British researchers access to Ukraine’s Avengers AI Labs battlefield-data platform to support the joint development of new military technologies. President Volodymyr Zelensky and British Prime Minister Andy Burnham signed the agreement in Kyiv, during Burnham’s first trip to the capital as Ukraine marked its 35th Independence Day.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. “This groundbreaking partnership will bring together Ukraine’s unrivalled operational experience with Britain’s world-class AI ecosystem, giving us the opportunity to develop the technologies of the future, changing lives here in Britain and saving lives on the battlefield in Ukraine,” Burnham said, according to the British government. Britain, the first foreign partner to gain access to Ukraine’s Avengers AI Labs, announced earlier on Monday that it would allow a defense company MBDA to declassify information on British components used in Storm Shadow/SCALP cruise missiles, part of an effort to help Ukraine and France establish local missile production. Joint defense projects The newly signed deal forms a key part of the UK and Ukraine’s 100 Year Partnership. “Britain and Ukraine are the closest of partners,” said British Minister for AI, Kanishka Narayan. “Ukraine’s extraordinary courage on the battlefield has been matched by remarkable technological ingenuity,” he continued.