Details emerge about 36th Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting

The 36th meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, known as the Ramstein format, will take place remotely under the joint leadership of the United Kingdom and Germany.

UK Defence Secretary Wes Streeting and German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius will co-chair the meeting, continuing the arrangement used after the United States stepped back from its coordinating role following a change in administration. The talks are due to begin at 16:00 Kyiv time.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and Elbridge Colby, the US under secretary of defense for policy, are expected to participate. Ukraine submitted a list of urgent air defence needs to NATO before the meeting, while Defence Minister Yevhenii Khmara held a preparatory call with Rutte.

The previous contact group meeting took place on 18 June at NATO headquarters in Brussels, also under British and German co-chairmanship. After that meeting, Pistorius said Ukraine would receive a three-digit number of air-to-air missiles from German stocks. He also announced that Germany and Ukraine would jointly produce ground robotic systems.