The Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) pledged to send 21 billion euros ($23.7 billion) in future military aid for Kiev. Under the Joe Biden administration, Washington led the UDCG and was the largest contributor to the Western proxy war in Ukraine.
Following a meeting of the UDCG on Friday, the bloc announced the new military aid for Kiev. The majority of the aid was pledged by Berlin and London. Germany agreed to send Ukraine €11 billion over the next four years. The UK plans to send £4.5 billion this year.
The UDCG was formed and led by the US to facilitate Western support for the proxy war in Ukraine. After Trump returned to the White House, the US stepped back as the group’s leader. London and Berlin are now co-heads of the organization. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth attended Friday’s summit remotely.
Discussing Berlin’s pledge, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius argued, “Given Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine, we must concede (that) peace in Ukraine appears to be out of reach in the immediate future.” He added, “We will ensure that Ukraine continues to benefit from our joint military support.”
President Trump is making a major push to bring the war to an end with a diplomatic settlement.
US and Russian officials met in Turkey on Thursday, with both sides describing the talks as positive. On Friday, Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, traveled to St. Petersburg to meet with President Valdimir Putin.
UK Defence Secretary John Healey accused Putin of misleading the US about Russia’s interest in ending the war. “Putin said he wanted peace, but his forces continue to fire on Ukraine,” he said.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, who attended Friday’s summit, explained that Europe was now “taking the lead in security assistance for which we are thankful to the UK and Europe.” He noted that Washington has continued to send Kiev military aid.
Pistorius said Berlin’s pledge to send billions in weapons to Kiev over the next four years is because “Russia needs to understand that Ukraine is able to go on fighting, and we will support it.”
According to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, the German pledge includes 4 IRIS-T air-defence systems with 300 guided missiles, 300 reconnaissance drones, 120 MANPADS, 25 Marder infantry fighting vehicles, 15 Leopard 1A5 main battle tanks, 14 artillery systems, 100 ground surveillance radars, 30 PATRIOT guided missiles, and 100,000 rounds of artillery ammunition.
Berlin’s pledge notably does not include Patriot launch systems, just interceptors. Ukrainian President Zelesnky has recently made several appeals to allies for more air defense systems. Pistorius said Germany was unable to send a Patriot system to Ukraine as Berlin is waiting for deliveries of the platform for its defenses.
“Air defence is a problem all over the world – we are doing as much as we can as fast as we can,” said Pistorius.
Most of Britain’s military aid will come as radar systems and air defenses. “In our calculations, 70% to 80% of battlefield casualties are now caused and inflicted by drones,” Healey explained.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com and news editor of the Libertarian Institute. He hosts The Kyle Anzalone Show and is co-host of Conflicts of Interest with Connor Freeman.
I am proud to be Polish/European!
Glory to Europe!
Glory to Ukraine!
Glory to Poland! (!!!)
That’s like being proud that it’s rainy outside or that it’s 5:47pm.
I’m a happy person. Oh and I like when its raining, especially on a hot day; rain is underrated.
Happiness and pride aren’t the same thing.
Pride is an appropriate response to something you actually accomplished. Happening to have been born on a particular area of ground rather than some other particular area of ground is something you had zero control over and thus no cause to take pride in.
I feel pride in my life….
Good. It’s a human life, not a Polish or European life, though.
That's why I never became a patriot anywhere.
Not even New England ?
Maybe not last season, but…
Some here think this commenter is a reincarnation of Christian Villa, who claimed to be Ukrainian, but got an exemption from military recruitment by going to college.
Same cheerleading modus operandi with no blood in the game.
I have no blood in the game
"Some here …" ???
Me. 110%. Completely.
And not because maybe I borrowed a grad student friend's access to his university's AI program used by professors to compare term paper contents to extant published works, and fed it Kristoff with Lox's posts and old screencapped Christian Vila posts to determine "plagiarism" between the two. No, I did not do this.
Have you abandoned your Ukrainian identity, Christian Vila, or are you just hiding it to stay on these Comment sections ?
Ukrainian identity wouldn’t stop anyone from being in these comment sections.
Of course it wouldn’t. I was just asking Christian Vila directly if he’s officially abandoned his Ukrainian heritage, or if it’s an act as part of pretending he isn’t now who he was before.
Only $23 billion…!? Europe is poorer than what I thought…!
Ukraine is in Europe, and this is again another European war, as Western Russia is in Europe, and they are all raised in Christian homes. Where is the Church on this issue???
Which church ?
But first, answer my 3 questions you avoided before :
1. Do you care if what you believe is true ?
2. Is it possible you could be wrong about any position you hold ?
3. If presented with verifiable evidence on a topic where you hold a contrary view, could or would you change your position to align with the facts ?
There are ink and toilet paper shortages across Europe.
Similar to Covid 19 era in US…?!
Mmm, Panickdemic-era North America was more deficient in critical thinking and rational discourse. Not that much has improved.
Europe is divided. Only UK, Germany, France and some minor north European states are still enthusiastic about Ukrainian project. The rest of Europe is sceptic about that.
French and German public opinion also is against supporting Kiev regime. And yes, their financial situation is very bad. For sending money to Kiev, they need first to borrow them.
We are not divided. You are trying to split us apart
"We are not divided."
I doubt you speak for all your people; but it IS clear you personally have a vested financial interest in the wealthy states of Europe winning Ukraine's war against the Russian Federation.
In a few years you expect to swagger back into homeland Ukraine with your university degree finished in Poland, your mind & body free from the damages of war, and profit by being educated & capable on the ground floor of a wrecked country that can only improve in economic value.
If you can live with yourself morally and ethically after that, "well done" I suppose ? I'm not the sort to find myself on 3rd Base and fawn over a delusional belief I hit a Triple, but, some are.
"You are trying to split us apart."
No. Like the "Balkans", your country is already deeply divided; two decades of election returns and cursory examinations of socio-ethnic histories are overwhelming evidence to support that Ukraine is, like Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, a Frankenstein's Monster of Soviet mapmaking. Iraq, too, for that matter, tho the occupying Americans after 2003 felt a reasonable subdivision of Iraq into 3+ ethno-states would look like failure in their nation-building Crusade across central Asia and the Near East.
If anything, your country is moving towards a Czech / Slovak divorce. Ethnic Russian Ukrainians in the east, "Proper Aryan Ukrainians" in the west. You never took issue with this likelihood before; what changed since hiding out in Poland ?
It is not actually all that much money, and it is "pledged" over a number of years. And what is "pledged" is not always what is delivered.
Also, Defense Minister Pistorius of Germany said, "Given Russia's on-going aggression against Ukraine, we must concede that peace in Ukraine appears to be out of reach in the immediate future. We will ensure that Ukraine continues to benefit from our joint military suppport. Russia needs to understand that Ukraine is able to go on fighting and we will support it."
Does that sound like there is any hope, much less a plan, for the Ukraine to win? Germany and the others "pledge"/"agree"/whatever word you choose to use, to continue to "support" the Ukraine, and that will show Russia that the Ukraine will be "able to go on fighting." Not a word about the Ukraine actually succeeding on the battlefield, rolling Russia back, retaking lost territory, etc. No, the Ukraine will, somehow, "benefit from" its Euro backers' support merely by being able to continue to fight, from now until whenever, apparently.
Good longer read:
REARMAMENT: THE CHARADE AND THE GAME OF CHICKEN
To understand the reasons for the charade that played out in the Oval Office of the White House on February 28, it is advisable to look at what happened in Germany just a few hours later: Friedrich Merz, chancellor-in-waiting and a former BlackRock executive, announced a $900 billion package – twice Germany’s annual federal budget – for defence and infrastructure. (In a bulletin on February 24, BlackRock had anticipated that the German vote would allow for increased spending.) A few days later, Merz confirmed radical proposals (the largest overhaul of monetary policy since the reunification, alongside a constitutional reform) aimed at relaxing restrictions on debt accumulation to enable increased defence expenditure – in stark contrast, of course, to the fiscal austerity enforced across the EU over the past two decades, particularly the sadistic measures imposed on Greece.
As often the case, tout se tient. It is enough to connect the dots to grasp that today’s key geopolitical events originate in the elementary driver, and desperate lifeline, of contemporary capitalism: debt. Zelensky and Trump lock horns in front of the cameras (“this is going to be great television” says the Donald). A few hours later the former comedian, now victim of institutional bullying, is welcomed back into liberal Europe by the “coalition of the willing” (sic!), a pack of lugubrious politicians fittingly led by Keir Starmer. Meanwhile, like a Pavlov dog, the indignation of all “true progressive forces” is unleashed across the Old Continent. And, contextually, the Bundestag capitalizes on the general outcry to loosen Germany’s fiscal cordons and oil the money presses: more debt für uns und für alle! The conditions are perfect: a freshly formed Große Koalition, a recession in progress, and, most crucially, the irresistible primal scene of two forms of “political insanity” (Trump and Putin) apparently making love to each other.
After the Covid crisis, the debt brake can again be suspended due to “unusual emergencies beyond governmental control”. It is Germany’s much-awaited “whatever it takes” moment, its spectacular capitulation to economic pressure camouflaged as geopolitical responsibility. Under the new leadership of “BlackRock Merz”, the last bastion of fiscal discipline converts to the American model of debt-based “financial growth”. Unsurprisingly, huge amounts of capital are now pouring into German equities – the highest influx since the pandemic bonanza. The spectre of Weimar, it seems, is no longer haunting the country.
…This situation is both tragic and farcical, since it now demands applying a lick of military-green paint to a European economy caught with its pants down after years of self-inflicted pain, from the Green New Deal to sixteen sanction packages against Russia (which, of course, worked the opposite way we were promised they would work). Incidentally, you may have noticed the establishment’s nonchalant shift from commitment to environmental sustainability, exemplified by ESG investments, to the aggressive rhetoric aimed at bolstering the military-industrial complex. Will they, perhaps, produce eco-friendly weapons? Clearly, “green” is a flexible, fluid signifier, perfectly adaptable to market needs, fulfilling both environmental goals and “existential” military ends….
Instead of reflecting on the underlying causes of decline, Europe’s technocratic leaders are tying deficit spending to a frantic narrative of a geopolitical emergency. The fundamental truth of this narrative is that the West has exhausted any capacity for “economic miracles.” In fact, growth rates have long been stagnant, work is precarious, fiat currencies are devaluing, debt is structural, and the resulting financial bubbles are “managed” through grotesque emergency manipulations. If anything, the new arms race further highlights the elitist and undemocratic tendencies of European leadership, which may well result in the collapse of the Euro – especially if we consider that, being aligned with BlackRock, Merz is primarily loyal to the interests of transnational financial capital…
https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/rearmament-the-charade-and-the-game-of-chicken/
Both Europe and the USA seem to want to resurrect the old "wars forever" fever with greater killing weapons, more parades, more cheering by the flip flapping seals.
The last hurrah before the great finale of spectacular fire works.
I sure hope that the insanity can be stopped somehow. Unfortunately those who remain sane are immediately threatened with nukes.
In the end, it’s a murder and theft business model, protection racket, creating crises to keep their unsustainable economies afloat with debt.
Any wonder why the west and empire are detested?
It should be noted that President Trump is escalating internationally the tension in both political and economic relations, as he is considering boycotting the G20 summit in South Africa in November 2025.
https://nypost.com/2025/04/12/us-news/trump-floats-g-20-boycott-due-to-south-african-laws/
https://mg.co.za/politics/2025-04-12-trump-to-snub-november-g20-summit-in-sa-again-citing-so-called-persecution-of-whites/
https://www.iss.europa.eu/publications/commentary/g20-crossroads-south-africa-backs-multilateralism-and-eyes-eu-following-us
Lee Fang © @lhfang
Follow
Internal USAID video showcases its efforts to bring in American imagemakers, Hollywood executives to Ukraine to reshape national identity through film and cultural series.
https://x.com/lhfang/status/1910005914507378890
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/bombshell-reports-german-weapons
"Bombshell Reports?"
"But just as many in the Russian sphere had long suspected, such ‘dazzling’ workmanship and technology usually leads to high maintenance and reliability costs, as anyone who’s owned a BMW [Mercedes Benz] can probably attest."
"Germany agreed to send Ukraine 11 billion over the next four years"
German commitment to Anglo-Saxon Ukrainian project is rather peculiar. If we leave aside the raving about inflicting a "strategic defeat" on Russia, Ukrainian project serves mainly for sabotaging German-Russia economic cooperation without which German economy hardly can achieve any good results. Meanwhile Russia is doing well without Germany. Economic cooperation with China is more profitable.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-president-volodymyr-zelenskyy-2025-60-minutes-interview-transcript/
"Germany agreed to send Ukraine €11 billion over the next four years…"
That does kind of feel like a hedge bet made entirely for show. Sounds impressive but the odds of Ukraine still existing & still fighting in four more years are distant at best.
https://www.politico.eu/article/trump-says-there-is-a-point-you-have-to-either-put-up-or-shut-up-on-russia-ukraine-talks/
Screw you if you support this barbarism all perpetrated by the fucking terrorists in Moscow
The article fails to verify this attack from Moscow's military leaders OR present the Russian Federation's explanation. There is not enough information presented to reach a reasonable conclusion about the attack.
30 people were killed and 10s more injured
Screw you fascist
I am {Left, Libertarian} with a distinct aversion to Authoritarianism.
I grant that the attack happened. I decry the lousy journalism of an article that does not interrogate the Russian Federation for an explanation or justification, and which therefore leaves the motivation or cause largely ambiguous.
The RF prides itself on avoiding civilian casualties; I would have Moscow explain in this attack was in error, or a shift in tactical methodology ?
I’m not inclined to believe such one-sided articles.
I am too, so I say
This is not an error
Attacks like this have happened before and will keep happening
What countries strategy calls for bombing civillians?
Rhymes with “Israel”, for one.