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Ukraine’s allies have announced a record €21bn (£18.2bn) in additional military support for Kyiv and have accused Vladimir Putin of dragging his feet and delaying US-led negotiations over a ceasefire deal.
Speaking at a meeting of the Ukraine defence contact group in Brussels, the British defence secretary, John Healey, said the Russian president had rejected a 30-day pause in fighting proposed a month ago by Donald Trump.
Healey said: “Putin said he wanted peace, but he rejected a full ceasefire. His forces continue to fire on Ukraine, military and civilian targets alike.”
The UK and Germany jointly convened Friday’s Ramstein meeting, which was attended by more than 40 countries but not the US. Pete Hegseth, Trump’s defence secretary, joined by video instead.
Germany’s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, played down the Trump administration’s absence. He conceded that peace “appears to be out of reach in the immediate future” and said Ukraine was at the “epicentre of a broader conflict”.
“It is between freedom and oppression, between the recognition of global standards and aggressive imperialism, between democracy and authoritarianism,” Pistorius said, adding that military support for Ukraine would continue.
The US’s attempts to bring about a quick end to the war have so far not succeeded. Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, held talks on Friday with Putin’s investment aide Kirill Dmitriev in St Petersburg. This followed a visit last week by Dmitriev to Washington.
Witkoff was also due to meet Putin, as the Kremlin cautioned that “no breakthroughs” and “nothing momentous” should be expected.
In conversations with the White House, Russia has refused to make concessions. Moscow demands control over four Ukrainian regions, the removal of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s pro-western government and a ban on Nato membership for Ukraine. It also wants the lifting of sanctions.
Trump issued a rare warning to Putin before the meeting on his social media platform Truth Social. “Russia has to get moving. Too many people ere [sic] DYING, thousands a week, in a terrible and senseless war – A war that should have never happened, and wouldn’t have happened, if I were President!!!” he wrote.
Trump has previously said he is “pissed off” by Putin’s failure to stop fighting but he has not taken any serious measures to put pressure on Russia’s president. In interviews, Witkoff has parroted Kremlin talking points, telling the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions had voted to join Moscow.
Since Ukraine agreed to a US ceasefire last month, Russia has dramatically escalated its aerial bombing campaign. This week it launched a big military push in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions, seizing several border villages.
There is speculation Russia is trying to grab as much territory as possible by 9 May, the day Russia celebrates its victory during the second world war, and ahead of a possible peace deal.
Estonia’s defence minister, Hanno Pevkur, said: “This is why we need to speed up the deliveries as quickly as we can.”
Addressing the Brussels meeting by video, Zelenskyy urged his allies to provide new Patriot air defence systems. This week a Russian ballistic missile hit a playground in the city of Krivhy Rih , where Zelenskyy grew up, killing nine children and 11 adults.
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“Our priority is air defence. Patriots that remained unused in storage with our partners should be protecting lives,” Zelenskyy said, adding that 10 more were urgently needed.
Speaking at a press conference after the Ramstein meeting, Pistorius said Germany had already given four Patriot systems to Kyiv and was waiting for more to be delivered. He said a global search was under way. “We will buy anything we can get,” he said.
Germany will provide four Iris-T air defence systems as well as 15 Leopard 1 tanks, more reconnaissance drones and 100,000 artillery rounds, he added. Other governments announced fresh contributions.
Healey said the UK and Norway would supply radar systems, anti-tank mines and “hundreds of thousands of drones” as part of a $560m defence package, on top of £4.5bn committed by Downing Street this year. The figure includes the repair of military vehicles damaged on the battlefield.
Friday’s meeting did not clarify how many countries were ready to send troops to Ukraine as part of a “coalition of the willing”. The UK, France and Baltic nations have said they will put boots on the ground in the event of a peace settlement. The news agency AFP reported that six nations had signed up.
This week Healey described a plan for a so-called reassurance force as “well-developed”. It envisages foreign soldiers being deployed away from the 1,000km-long frontline and boosting existing Ukrainian ground forces, he suggested.
Russia has categorically rejected the idea. Sweden’s defence minister, Pål Jonson, said Stockholm needed answers to “a number of questions” before it could make a commitment. “It’s helpful if there’s a clarity of what that mission would entail, and what do we do – if we are peacekeeping, deterrence or reassurance,” he said.
The UK has said the US military “backstop” – meaning comprehensive air cover – is essential for any mission to work. The Trump administration, however, has ruled this out and has indicated that Ukraine’s future security needs are now Europe’s problem.
The Biden administration set up the Ukraine defence contact group after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion and chaired meetings. In February the US relinquished this leadership role, handing it over to London and Berlin. Hegseth said the Trump administration had priorities elsewhere – in Asia and on America’s own borders.
