Western allies to supply Ukraine with $2bn in military assistance
- 10 January, 07:02
Ukraine’s western allies have pledged to supply Kyiv with an additional military assistance worth $2 billion to help the country’s war efforts against Russia in the 34-month-old war, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday.
Commenting on Thursday’s meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) in Ramstein, Zelenskiy said 34 countries have pledged their support in different aspects of the war. “We had a very good meeting, a very good result. There was $2bn in additional packages of support to Ukraine,” he said in a video posted on the television channel’s Telegram account.
Addressing the Ramstein summit on January 9, alongside outgoing US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, days before Donald Trump’s inaguruation, Zelenskiy said: "It's clear that a new chapter starts for Europe and the entire world just 11 days from now, when we have to cooperate even more, rely on each other even more, and achieve greater results together.”
US president-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized Biden administration’s military aid to Ukraine and pledged to bring a swift end to the war in Ukraine, raising concerns about the future of US aid to Kyiv.
In his opening speech at Ramstein meeting, Zelenskiy also urged the allies not to withhold help to Ukraine. "We've come such a long way that it would honestly be crazy to drop the ball now and not keep building on the defense coalitions we've created," the president noted.
The Ukraine Defence Contract group meeting was the last such meeting in this format before Donald Trump assumes presidency on January 20. Earlier this week, Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz implied that the January 9 meeting might be the last one in the current format.
Comprising 57 nations, including all 32 NATO members, the Ukraine Defence Contract group was set up in April 2022 to coordinate international support for Ukraine.
