John Healey, the UK’s defence secretary, is addressing members of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels.

He says that his US counterpart, Pete Hegseth, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are both joining the meeting virtually.

“Our job as defence ministers is to get urgent military aid into the hands of Ukrainian warfighters,” Healey says. 

He urges those present to re-look at what they can provide Kyiv. 

“Today, we will pledge billions more [in more funding to Ukraine’s military],” he says. 

He also acknowledges the £350m the UK has committed this morning – part of a wider £450m British-led package – which he says will strengthen British-Ukrainian industrial links as well as putting more weapons in Kyiv’s hands. 

“2025 is the critical year for the war in Ukraine, and this is the critical moment,” he says. 

“We stand with you in the fight and we stand with you in the peace,” Healey concludes.