Ukraine allies pledge €21bn in fresh military aid

Ukraine's European allies have pledged €21bn ($24bn; £18bn) in a new tranche of military support for Kyiv in what they described as "a critical year" for the war.

More than half of this - €11bn in aid over four years - is coming from Germany. British Defence Minister John Healey said the pledges would send a strong signal to Moscow.

The announcement came as members of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group met at Nato's headquarters in Brussels to pledge air defences, missiles and other gear as Europe sought to fill the gap left by the changed priorities of the US under Donald Trump.

Europe's defence ministers said they saw no sign of an end to the war, despite Trump's promise of a ceasefire.

Support announced on Friday also includes a £450m ($590m) package from the UK and Norway to fund radar systems, anti-tank mines, vehicle repairs and hundreds of thousands of drones for Ukraine. The money is part of a British pledge of £4.5bn made earlier this year.

Air defence was a priority in Brussels. Healey said Russian forces had dropped 10,000 glide bombs on Ukraine in the first three months of this year, as well as launching 100 one-way attack drones a day.

"In our calculations, 70% to 80% of battlefield casualties are now caused and inflicted by drones," the UK defence secretary said.

The German aid package meanwhile has a significant focus on artillery.

Boris Pistorius said Germany would send 100,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, 25 infantry fighting vehicles, 15 battle tanks, 100 ground surveillance radars and 120 Man-Portable Air Defense Systems.

Berlin will also send four IRIS-T air defence systems with 300 missiles to Kyiv.

"Ukraine needs a strong military and only then can the negotiation process lead to a just and lasting peace," the German defence minister told reporters in Brussels.

Defence ministers from 50 nations gathered in Brussels for the 27th gathering of the UDCG.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth joined the meeting remotely, telling allies that America appreciated their work.

Pistorius said Hegseth's decision was a matter of "schedules" rather than "priorities", and that the "most important fact was that he took part".

Other leaders also joined remotely, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Kyiv's defence minister Rustem Umerov, who was in Brussels, thanked Europe for "taking over the lead on security assistance" for his country.

He also said Hegseth's attendance "means that the US is continuing its security assistance and is beside us".

Healey, Pistorius and Umerov all accused Russia of dragging its feet over a ceasefire.

Healey said it had been more than a month since Russia rejected a US-backed peace settlement. Pistorius said Russia was still not interested in peace.

Talks in Europe took place as US special envoy Steve Witkoff travelled to Russia, once more, to press the Kremlin to accept a truce.

Witkoff met Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on Friday as Donald Trump urged the Russian president to "get moving" on a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin and Witkoff would discuss the Ukraine war, but one should not expect any "breakthroughs".

On the ground in Ukraine, Russia's defence ministry said on Thursday that its forces had captured the village of Zhuravka, in Ukraine's northern border region of Sumy.

Ukrainian officials are yet to confirm this.

Earlier this week, President Zelensky said as many as 67,000 Russian soldiers were positioned north of the border of the Sumy region, in preparation for an attack on the city of Sumy.