Defence secretary warns this is ‘the critical year’ for Ukraine – as £450m in funding allocated

The defence secretary has said that 2025 is “the critical year” for Ukraine as he confirmed £450m in funding for a military support package.

The funding includes £350m from this year’s previously announced pot of £4.5bn in financial support, while the rest of the cash is being provided by Norway via the UK-led International Fund for Ukraine.

The money will fund repairs to and maintenance of UK-provided materials and equipment already given to Ukraine, as well as radar systems, anti-tank mines and hundreds of thousands of drones.

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It was announced on Friday by Defence Secretary John Healey, who is in Brussels chairing a meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group alongside his German counterpart Boris Pistorius.

The group is an alliance of about 50 countries – all 32 NATO member states, including the US, and about 20 other nations – that has been supporting Ukraine by sending military equipment there since April 2022, a few weeks after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

Speaking at the start of the meeting, Mr Healey warned: “2025 is the critical year for the war in Ukraine, and this is the critical moment.

“A moment for our defence industries to step up, and they are; a moment for our militaries to step up, and they are; a moment for our governments to step up, and they are.

“Together, we are sending a signal to Russia and we are saying to Ukraine that we stand with you in the fight and we will stand with you in the peace.”

At a news conference following the talks, Mr Healey told journalists that Ukraine’s allies have agreed to provide a “record boost” €21bn (£18.2bn) in total of military support for Kyiv.

The German defence minister confirmed that US secretary of defence, Pete Hegseth, attended virtually, while special envoy Steve Witkoff travelled to Moscow, which Mr Pistorius insisted was not a matter of “priorities”, but of “schedules”.

‘Coalition of the willing’ planning continues

The meeting comes one day after the UK defence secretary and his French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu led 30 defence ministers from the “coalition of the willing” in Brussels.

The group, which does not include the US, discussed operational plans on Thursday afternoon for a multinational peacekeeping force in Ukraine.

It looked at each nation’s capabilities and how they could be best used to support Ukraine’s long-term defence and security as part of what the Ministry of Defence called a “reassurance force”.

UK and French military chiefs discussed planning with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his military chiefs in Kyiv last weekend.

Peace negotiations are ongoing between the US and Russia, however, US officials appear to be growing increasingly impatient with the lack of progress after Donald Trump publicly suggested a month ago that Vladimir Putin wants to end the war.

Last Tuesday, the Kremlin described the latest US peace proposal as unacceptable in its current form because it does not solve the “root causes” of the conflict.

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Mr Putin wants to dismantle Ukraine as an independent, functioning state and has demanded Kyiv recognise Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and other partly occupied areas and pull its forces out, as well as a pledge for Ukraine to never join NATO and to demilitarise.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Friday that Mr Trump is not “going to fall into the trap of endless negotiations” with Moscow.

Despite the apparent impasse in talks, the coalition of the willing is continuing with its plans for when peace is agreed.