Ukraine's allies who met in Brussels have already pledged $35 billion in military aid to Kiev this year, British Defense Secretary John Healy said.
The amount includes new bilateral commitments as well as previous pledges from Ukraine's allies, such as the 11.5 billion euros announced by Germany, a NATO diplomat said.
"We will increase military assistance to Ukraine. We will increase pressure on Russia," Healy said after a meeting of the Contact Group between Ukraine and its allies in Brussels.
In 2025, this group raised about $45 billion in military aid for Ukraine and "in 2026 we must do better, do more," the British minister emphasized.
His German counterpart Boris Pistorius announced that Berlin would deliver five new advanced long-range anti-aircraft systems, the PAC-3 type, for Ukraine's air defense. He called on other countries to send at least thirty such systems.
"We all know that the goal is to save lives," Pistorius told reporters, accompanied by Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.
Massive Russian attacks on Ukraine's power grid have cut off electricity and heating to large parts of the country in the middle of winter. "This is simply terrorizing the civilian population," Pistorius said, saying Russia is using winter "as a weapon against innocent women, children and men."
"The Russians cannot defeat us on the ground, so they are waging war against our critical infrastructure," Fedorov commented.
Germany and Britain co-chair the Contact Group, which was previously led by the US.
