Ukraine's key allies meet without US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in the room
Ukraine's key allies are meeting in Brussels on Friday with a noticeable absence at the table: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is only attending virtually.
The Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which was created by former US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during the Biden administration, is a group of roughly 50 nations that meet regularly to discuss bolstering military support for Ukraine.
It will mark the first time a US defense secretary has not attended the meeting in person since the group was established in 2022 just months after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which comes amid a series of policy shifts by the Trump administration seen as moving closer to Moscow.
Top Trump official Steve Witkoff arrived in St. Petersburg on Friday for negotiations with Russia, according to the Kremlin.
Witkoff held a meeting with Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev in St. Petersburg. Russian state media and Axios reported that Witkoff is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin later on Friday, but the Kremlin spokesman declined to comment on reports of a possible meeting.
Meanwhile in Brussels, the Ukraine Defense Contact Group was chaired by British Defense Secretary John Healey for the second time, co-hosting with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.
Pistorius said ahead of Friday's meeting that it was the Trump administration's decision to attend virtually and was 'not his business' to comment on the signal that sends.
'Given Russia's ongoing aggression against Ukraine, we must concede peace in Ukraine appears to be out of reach in the immediate future,' Pistorius said in a news conference immediately after the meeting. 'We will ensure that Ukraine continues to benefit from our joint military support. Russia needs to understand that Ukraine is able to go on fighting, and we will support it.'
Ahead of the meeting in Brussels, the British defense minister offered strong words of support for Ukraine and called for putting 'even more pressure on Putin.'
'Our commitment is to put Ukraine in the strongest position to protect Ukraine's sovereignty and deter future Russian aggression,' Healey said in a statement.
New pledges of military aid announced after Friday's meeting total more than €21 billion euros ($23.8 billion), Healey announced, calling it 'a record boost in military funding for Ukraine.'
Germany will provide a further €11 billion ($12.5 billion) in military support to Ukraine through 2029, including IRIS-T mobile air defense missile systems and PATRIOT missiles, Ukraine's defense minister said Friday from Brussels. The United Kingdom and Norway will also jointly give an additional $589 million in military aid, to provide maintenance to vehicles and hundreds of thousands of drones.
Air defense is Kyiv's priority, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said ahead of the meeting.
'We just need to address the shortage of air defense systems to make our sky protection stronger,' Zelensky said. 'Our partners can help with this and also speed up the implementation of all agreements reached earlier. Patriots that remain unused in storage with our partners should be protecting lives.'
Zelensky said earlier this week that Russia was 'preparing' a new offensive, as CNN reported that Russia's army has increased operations across the front line in recent weeks.
Ukraine's military chief Oleksandr Syrskyi told Ukrainian media on Thursday that Russia has 'already begun' its new offensive against the Sumy and Kharkiv regions.
Meanwhile, a new United Nations report revealed this week that Ukraine experienced a significant increase in civilian casualties from Russian attacks in March.
The number of civilian casualties was 50% higher than the previous month, with at least 164 people killed and 910 injured in March, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said.
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