BERLIN — Top officials from Europe’s five largest military spenders met in Berlin today to reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine’s defense and announce a number of measures designed to strengthen Europe’s eastern flank.
Among the planned moves is the deployment of counter-drone forces to Finland and Belgium and new military and financial support for Ukraine, defense leaders from Germany, the U.K., France, Poland, Italy and the EU announced today.
Germany committed to delivering at least €150 million ($175 million) in U.S.-made military equipment to Kyiv under a program designed to make available to Ukraine weapons that only America produces. This is on top of German military aid for Ukraine approved by the country’s parliament this week.
In 2026, Germany plans to spend €11.5 billion ($13.4 billion) to support the Eastern European nation – €3 billion more than in the current year.
A key topic of discussion among the so-called Group of Five was the escalating hybrid warfare that Europe has observed in the form of sabotage, unidentified drone sightings, cyber warfare and airspace incursions, among other tactics.
“We are faced with multiple threats,” Polish State Secretary Paweł Zalewski said. “And Russia is the originator of these.”
British Secretary of State for Defence John Healey said his country had joined Germany in sending military advisers to Belgium last weekend to assist in combating the sudden influx of unidentified drones over that country. The U.K. has also deployed anti-drone combat units to Finland on NATO’s northeastern flank, Healey revealed. Finland shares the longest border with Russia of any NATO country.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that his country, too, remains deployed in Belgium with “anti-drone troops” of the German air force that had been moved there on just a few hours’ notice. He made a connection between the ongoing discussions to use frozen Russian assets held in Belgium to support Ukraine and the emergence of the mysterious drone threat.
Drone defense is set to remain a key topic for the five leading European military nations. Pistorius said work is underway to present a signature-ready proposal for cost-effective drone defense at the ministers’ next meeting, scheduled to take place in Warsaw early in the new year.
Meanwhile, the officials shared intelligence according to which 93% of Russian strikes in Ukraine hit civilian targets. The estimate was mentioned on three separate occasions by the Italian and German defense ministers, as well as the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas.
A full and immediate ceasefire remains the bloc’s goal, Kallas said. But “Russia does not want to negotiate at all,” she added.
Kallas raised the possibility of confiscating frozen Russian state assets in Western banks. “Ukraine will need funding next year,” she said, and “ using immobilized Russian assets is the most clear-cut way.”
Domestically, the EU is developing plans to improve roads, railways and bridges to facilitate military mobility, Kallas said, with Brussels coordinating closely with NATO to meet collective objectives.
Linus Höller is Defense News’ Europe correspondent and OSINT investigator. He reports on the arms deals, sanctions, and geopolitics shaping Europe and the world. He holds a master’s degrees in WMD nonproliferation, terrorism studies, and international relations, and works in four languages: English, German, Russian, and Spanish.
