UK to lead instead of US as London officially calls Ramstein meeting

The United States will not be leading a session of the US-led Ukraine Defence Contact Group meetings for the first time in history. The United Kingdom has officially confirmed that it will host the 26th meeting of the Ramstein Group on 12 February at NATO's headquarters in Brussels.

The statement from the United Kingdom's mission to NATO reads that the UK Defence Secretary John Healey is convening the 26th meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group. The meeting will take place at NATO's headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, 12 February, in the afternoon.

The group will gather ahead of the NATO defence ministers' meeting to discuss Ukraine's priorities and the support needed in its fight against Russia's full-scale invasion.

Ahead of the meeting, media reports indicated that the next Ramstein session would take place on 12 February, with the United Kingdom, rather than the United States, taking the lead.

The Ramstein Group, established by the US in the spring of 2022 following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, was designed to coordinate military aid to Kyiv. It has brought together more than 50 countries.

With the possibility of Donald Trump's return to the White House, concerns arose that the new administration might not support the Ramstein Group as strongly as Joe Biden's administration did. There were even fears that the format, in its current form, could come to an end.

The most recent Ramstein Group meeting took place on 9 January. Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umierov confirmed at the time that the next meeting was already scheduled for February.