Wheat is one of the major cereal crops in Ethiopia predominantly grown by small-scale farmers under rainfed condition. Currently, about 4.9 million farmers produce close to 4.5 million tons of wheat across 1.7 million hectares of land with average productivity of 2.6 t/ha. The rate of increase in wheat production over the past 10 years has 0.7% per year but the rate of wheat imports over the same period has increased 0.9% per year. The rates of genetic gain required over the next 10 years provide significant breeding and genetic challenges. Several factors contribute for low productivity but wheat rust diseases especially stem and yellow rust has become frontline constraints. Deployment of cultivars incorporating genetic resistance is considered the most sustainable and environmentally friendly control method. To broaden and identify new genetic source of rust resistance, 200 Vavilov accessions, along with 188 CIMMYT and ICARDA lines, were evaluated for stem and yellow rust in three locations during the 2018 cropping season in Ethiopia (Kulumsa, Meraro and Debrezeit). All accessions were genotyped using the DArT-seq genotyping platform. The results revealed that wide range of phenotypic variation for both stem and yellow rust response under field conditions. Useful sources of yellow and stem rust resistance have been identified from field evaluation and are being backcrossed to the popular and widely adapted cultivar called Attila or “Kubsa” which is very susceptible for both rusts. The backcrossing is being fasttracked using speed breeding technology to transfer both yellow and stem resistant genes. Backcrossed lines will be further evaluated under rust hot spot areas of Ethiopia and promising lines will be promote to release for resource poor farmers in Ethiopia.