BRUSSELS — Britain on Friday announced a “surge” of military support to Ukraine, as the war-ravaged country’s Western backers gathered to drum up more weapons and ammunition to fight off Russia's invasion and a U.S. envoy flew to Moscow amid ongoing ceasefire efforts.
Britain said that in a joint effort with Norway just over $580 million would be spent to provide hundreds of thousands of military drones, radar systems and anti-tank mines, as well as repair and maintenance contracts to keep Ukrainian armored vehicles on the battlefield.
On the eve of the meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said a key issue was strengthening his country’s air defenses. “Ukraine needs a sufficient number of modern systems like Patriot” missile systems, he said in a post on social media.
“A political decision is needed to supply these systems to protect our cities, towns, and the lives of our people — especially from the threat of Russian ballistic weapons. Our partners have such available systems,” Umerov said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has renewed his appeals for more Patriot systems since 20 people were killed a week ago, including nine children, when a Russian missile tore through apartment buildings and blasted a playground in his home town.
“Ukraine needs at the very least 10 systems that are sufficiently effective specifically against Russian ballistic missiles, and this is where Patriots are second to none,” he said on his Telegram channel ahead of the meeting. "We are counting on decisions.”
Zelenskyy joined Friday's meeting by video link.
Russia holds off agreeing to ceasefire
Russian forces hold the advantage in Ukraine, with the war now in its fourth year. Ukraine has endorsed a U.S. ceasefire proposal, but Russia has effectively blocked it by imposing far-reaching conditions.
The Russian delay in accepting Washington's proposal has frustrated U.S. President Donald Trump and fueled doubts about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin really wants to stop the fighting while his bigger army has momentum on the battlefield.
“Russia continues to use bilateral talks with the United States to delay negotiations about the war in Ukraine, suggesting that the Kremlin remains uninterested in serious peace negotiations to end the war,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said in an assessment late Thursday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff was back in Moscow on Friday but he didn’t confirm whether he will meet with Putin. Witkoff has been pressing the Kremlin to accept a truce.
Washington remains committed to securing a peace deal, even though four weeks have passed since it made its ceasefire proposals, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.
“It is a dynamic that will not be solved militarily. It is a meat grinder,” Bruce said Thursday about the war, adding that “nothing else can be discussed … until the shooting and the killing stops.”
Observers expect a new Russian offensive
Ukrainian officials and military analysts believe Russia is preparing to launch a fresh military offensive in coming weeks to ramp up pressure and strengthen the Kremlin’s hand in the negotiations.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that his country would provide Ukraine with four IRIS-T short- to medium-range systems with missiles, as well as 30 missiles for use on Patriot batteries. The Netherlands plans to supply a Hawkeye air defense system, an airborne early warning aircraft.
Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said that his country is monitoring the world armaments market and sees opportunities for Ukraine’s backers to buy more weapons and ammunition.
Pevkur said he believes Putin might try to reach some kind of settlement with Ukraine by May 9 — the day that Russia marks victory during World War II — making it even more vital to strengthen Kyiv’s position now.
“This is why we need to speed up the deliveries as quickly as we can,” he said.
Friday’s meeting is the 27th gathering of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. It’s being chaired by Britain and Germany. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will be absent from a forum that the United States created and led for several years, although he was due to take part via video.
Hegseth spent the first part of this week in Panama and returned to Washington on Wednesday night.
At the last contact group meeting in February, Hegseth warned Ukraine’s European backers that the U.S. now has priorities elsewhere — in Asia and on America’s own borders — and that they would have to take care of their own security, and that of Ukraine, in future.
Asked about the U.S. stepping back from its leadership role on Ukraine, Pistorius declined to comment, saying only that “it’s a decision of the new administration in Washington.”
“We are here to take over the lead,” he told reporters, “and we are willing and determined to do that with full responsibility and together with our allies.”
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AP reporter Lolita Baldor in Washington contributed to this story.
