Meeting in Ramstein

London supplies Ukraine with 650 air defense missiles

A launcher for so-called lightweight multirole missiles from the arms company Thales

(Bild: AFP/APA/Liam McBurney)

Great Britain is supplying Ukraine with 650 air defense missiles. This was announced by the Ministry of Defense in London before a meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group at the US airbase Ramstein in the German Rhineland-Palatinate.

Defense Secretary John Healey will announce the air defense package worth 162 million pounds (192 million euros) at the meeting, according to a statement on Thursday evening. It will be financed primarily from the UK's three billion pounds (around 3.5 billion euros) annual support for Ukraine.

"This new pledge will give an important boost to Ukraine's air defense and demonstrate our new government's determination to increase support for Ukraine," the Labour politician was quoted as saying in the statement.

The so-called Lightweight Multirole Missiles (LMM) are manufactured by the defense company Thales in Belfast and can be fired from land, sea and air. With a range of six kilometers and supersonic speed (Mach 1.5), they can be used to defend against a large number of threats, including drones, armored vehicles and smaller ships, according to London.

Austria is an observer to the Contact Group
According to Der Spiegel, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj is also expected to attend the meeting in Ramstein, which was hosted by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Around 50 states, including Germany, belong to the Contact Group. Austria is an observer to the group, which coordinates arms deliveries to Ukraine.

As in previous meetings at the base near Kaiserslautern, non-NATO states have also been invited. This is already the 24th meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group, although most of the talks took place in the form of a video conference.

Russia has been waging a war of aggression against neighboring Ukraine since 24 February 2022. The West is supporting Kiev in its defense with extensive arms deliveries, among other things.