CCDCOE director Col. Jaak Tarien said: "Ukraine's presence in the Centre will enhance the exchange of cyber expertise, between Ukraine and CCDCOE member nations.

"Ukraine could bring valuable first-hand knowledge of several adversaries within the cyber domain to be used for research, exercises and training," Tarien added.

Ukraine met with a unanimous vote among the 27 CCDCOE sponsoring nations.

Minister of Defence of Estonia Kalle Laanet (Reform) said: "Capability and knowledge comes from experience, and Ukraine definitely has valuable experience from previous cyber-attacks to provide significant value to the NATO CCDCOE."

"Estonia as a Host Nation of the CCDCOE has been a long-term partner for Ukraine in enhancing its cyber security capacity and cyber resilience and we welcome the decision of the members of CCDCOE agreeing to Ukraine's membership," Laanet went on.

strongly supports #Ukraine becoming a Contributing Participant of #NATO @ccdcoe. & are long-term partners in enhancing #cybersecurity capacity and resilience. has valuable experience in cyber and will be a strong contributor. #StrongerTogether https://t.co/f3ZViUEAJF

— MoD Estonia (@MoD_Estonia) March 4, 2022

The CCDCOE was holding its 30th Steering Committee this week, when the vote was held.

Ukraine, which is currently not a NATO member, had issued a letter confirming its continued interest in joining NATO CCDCOE as a Contributing Participant, the CCDCOE says, and the application was subsequently put to a vote.

The CCDCOE has already expanded its memberships outside the 30 NATO member nations.

The CCDCOE was founded in 2008 and is a NATO-accredited knowledge hub, think tank and training facility, carrying out research and development, training courses and exercises in the field of cyber security.

Its staff are international and include legal scholars, policy and strategy experts and technology researchers who have military, government and industry backgrounds.

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