Remilitarisation and support for Ukraine must not slacken, US tells Europe

Original article by Dan Sabbagh and Jamie Grierson

The US undersecretary of defence, Elbridge Colby, told European countries they “must not slacken” in their remilitarisation and their backing for Ukraine in a virtual meeting aimed at securing 300 Patriot interceptors for Kyiv.

The influential Pentagon official praised Ukraine’s recent “stout defence”, which he said proved that Europe was capable of leading the defence of its own continent from Russian aggression rather than relying on the US.

“Support for Ukraine contributes to Europe’s security,” Colby said at the start of a 50-country virtual meeting of the Ukraine contact group, reflecting what appears to be a warmer tone from the US on Ukraine.

It helped, he continued, “to rebuild Europe’s military strength and industrial capacity. But words are not enough. Real money and industrial capacity must be put to work. Again, I underline that this is happening, but we must not slacken.”

Led by its president, Donald Trump, the US has been pushing for Europe to dramatically increase defence spending and pay to supply American weapons, such as Patriot interceptors, to Kyiv, via a scheme set up by Nato.

The UK announced it had committed £100m to boost Ukraine’s air defences over winter by buying a package of US military equipment that will include urgently needed Patriot missiles, before the meeting had started.

Boris Pistorius, the German defence minister, pledged in his opening remarks that Berlin would donate a number of older Patriot Pac-2 interceptors from army stocks, and urged other allies of Ukraine to follow suit.

Ukraine is currently unable to prevent Russian ballistic missile attacks because of a shortage of Patriot interceptors, leading to attacks that have killed civilians and destroyed food and logistics warehouses over the summer.

Wes Streeting, the UK defence secretary, said that Ukraine had been “pretty clear” about what it needed: “Three hundred Patriot missiles from partner stocks, 500 air-to-air interceptors with counter-cruise missile capability, $2bn for drones,” and continued contributions to other schemes.

The UK did not say how many Patriots it would be able to buy, but the number is likely to be only a fraction of the number sought, given the cost of each interceptor is estimated at about $3m.

Yevhen Khmara, Ukraine’s newly appointed defence minister, acknowledged that Ukraine’s “situation with ballistics is much more difficult” and which was “precisely down to a lack of Patriot missiles”. It was a situation, he added, that the Kremlin was aware of, and trying to exploit.

The Ukrainian minister also said that Ukraine faced a defence budget gap of €23bn this year, and he hoped that countries would bring forward more funding so that its drone investment programme could continue uninterrupted. Kyiv hopes that the EU will bring forward some of a €90bn two-year loan to help plug the shortfall.

An escalation of the long-range war has meant that the harm to civilians is increasing as Ukraine targets Russian oil refineries and warehouses, while Russian bombing has meant that civilian casualties in Ukraine are at their highest level since May 2022 amid near constant attacks on the country’s cities.

On Sunday, US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited Kyiv for the first time, to discuss peace proposals, though no breakthrough was made. A day earlier they had visited the Kremlin, which is still pressing for Ukraine to give up territory and make a string of concessions for ending the war.

The prime minister, Andy Burnham, spoke to Trump about the war on Monday, with the two agreeing on the need to “continue working towards a ceasefire that prevented more loss of life”.