Minister of Defence of Ukraine Rustem Umerov took part in the 15th meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group held on 19 September at Ramstein base in Germany.

The defence ministers of about 50 countries discussed further military assistance to Ukraine in repelling russia’s armed aggression.

The Minister of Defence of Ukraine called on his colleagues to continue supporting Ukraine and outlined Ukraine’s priority needs.

Partners reaffirmed their commitment to support Ukraine.

The Ukrainian delegation also briefed the partners on the current situation around Ukraine and in the territories temporarily occupied by russian troops, as well as on the course of combat operations by the Ukrainian Defence Forces.

The members of the Contact Group announced security assistance packages. These are mainly aimed at developing the Defence Forces’ capabilities in air and missile defence, air support, manoeuvring and the ability to overcome engineering obstacles on the battlefield.

Following the meeting, Ukraine, Estonia and Luxembourg also launched an IT coalition, joined by Belgium, Denmark, Lithuania and Latvia.

The main outcome of the IT coalition should be the creation of a unified digital ecosystem for combat management and defence resource management for the Defence Forces.

Defence ministers also agreed to launch an initiative to create a Capabilities Coalition.

The main goal of this coalition will be to build the Ukrainian Defence Forces of the future. To this end, the Ministry of Defence has identified five clusters requiring priority attention: air defence, artillery, aviation, navy and armoured vehicles.