Europe leads Ukraine Contact Group gathering as Hegseth attends virtually
The 27th meeting of the roughly 50-country group coordinating aid for Ukraine gathered Friday at NATO headquarters without Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in the room. He opted to participate virtually, marking the first in-person gathering without the presence of the U.S. defense secretary.
During the Biden administration, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who created the contact group, hosted a meeting of the group almost every month, alternating between virtual and in-person events.
Hegseth attended the last meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in February, but he turned over leadership of the group to the U.K. In remarks to the group, he said, "Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine."
Friday's meeting was led by the U.K and Germany, which both announced new aid packages for Ukraine. Germany committed 11 billion pounds of equipment, including air defense systems and missiles.
The U.K., with support from Norway, committed 450 million pounds of aid to provide radar systems, anti-tank mines and hundreds of thousands of drones as well as cover repair and maintenance costs for equipment already given.
British Defense Secretary John Healey told the group, "2025 is the critical year for Ukraine. Our job as defense ministers is to put into the hands of the Ukrainian war fighters what they need."
"We must step up to deter Russian aggression by continuing to bolster Ukraine's defenses," Healey said.
The U.K expects to spend the equivalent of $5.8 billion this year for Ukraine, according to the U.K. Defense Ministry.
The Pentagon during the Biden administration committed at least $67 billion worth of weapons and equipment to Ukraine. That figure does not include funding for economic and humanitarian aid.
U.S. support for Ukraine
This is the first in-person of the group of about 50 countries organizing aid for Ukraine that has not included the physical presence of a U.S. defense secretary since April 2022. The U.S. military continues to deliver equipment and weapons promised to Ukraine by the Biden administration, but the Trump administration has not used any of the remaining $3.85 billion left in the presidential drawdown authority to commit any more packages of military equipment for Ukraine.
The head of U.S. forces in Europe, Gen. Christopher Cavoli, told Congress earlier this week that while the Europeans can step up, Ukraine depends largely on the U.S. for specific things, like "high-end anti-aircraft systems" that shoot down the ballistic missiles and long-range attack missiles the Russians "throw at them almost daily" and intelligence sharing.
"If the Ukrainians were not able to receive intelligence from us, they would struggle to target, especially in depth, operational level targets such as command posts, logistics areas and things like that," Cavoli told the Senate Armed Services Committee this week.
The Trump administration briefly paused offensive intelligence sharing with the Ukrainians after an explosive Oval Office meeting in February between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
State of the Ukraine-Russia war
Even as the Trump administration works to bring both sides to a negotiation, the war drags on.
Cavoli provided an update on the frontlines to the Senate Armed Services Committee, saying that the months-long Russian offensives in eastern Ukraine around Chasiv Yar and Toretsk "have sort of petered out," and the Russians "appear to have stalled out" around the strategic city of Pokrovsk.
Up in the Kursk area of Russia, there is still "a back and forth" where Ukraine holds a small amount of territory from its surprise offensive last August.
"I did not anticipate the war to go this long, and I did not anticipate Ukraine to be able to destroy so much of Russia's warfighting capability, " Cavoli said.
Overall, Cavoli commended the Ukrainians for adapting and transforming while at war, saying Ukraine was a "military that started pretty much from an almost cold start … and they've evolved and developed very, very quickly."
In a separate appearance before the House Armed Services Committee, he noted that the Ukrainians have been able to paralyze Russia's Black Sea Fleet even though Ukraine doesn't have a Navy, calling it one of the "most amazing Maritime feats."
