Britainsaid it woulddeliver 100,000 drones to Ukrainein the year from 1 April, a tenfold increase from the previous year, ahead of Wednesday’s meeting in Brussels of the 57 countryUkrainecontact group.
It ispart of a £350m spend on drones by the UK for Ukraine– but while the step change in production is significant, the figure is still significantly below the4.5m targetthat Ukraine has for indigenously manufactured drones in 2025.
TheUK said it was supplying one-way attack first person view (FPV) drones, simple bombers that can perform repeat missions, and new wired fibre optic drones which have emerged over the past six months, all everyday battlefield weapons.
Though it has taken over three years of war to get to the 100,000 figure, extra increments of supply will help Ukraine in its struggle against Russia. Russia’s own production target is3m to 4m drones.
Britain also said it would spend a further £247m on training Ukrainian troops as part of Operation Interflex, and that the UK had delivered 140,000 artillery shells so far in 2025, enough to sustain Kyiv for nearly a month on estimated usage rates.
This year, Ukraine has set it expects to receive3m shells from allies in total, as well as producing around2.5m shells and mortars indigenously. That compares favourably with an estimate given in April by Nato’s top military commander, Gen Christopher Cavoli, who said he expected Russia to produce3m shells this year.
Although the British contribution of basic weapons remains a fraction of Ukraine’s total requirements, by 2025 it is approaching militarily significant levels at a time, particularly alongside EU allies, raising the question of whetherRussiacan keep up.
A group of57 countries, including all members of Nato,helpingUkrainemeets todayin Brusselsfor the latest round of coordination of how to best help Kyiv in its continuing fight against the Russian invasion.
The meeting comes a day after Ukraine detonated amassive underwater blast that “severely damaged” the base of pylons holding up the illegally built Kerch Bridge, which connects the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula of Ukraine to Russia. The signature project of Vladimir Putin was hit with the equivalent of more than a metric tonne of TNT, said Kyiv’s SBU security service,write Peter Beaumont and Artem Mazhulin.
But, as Reuters noted, in a sign of how far the US has moved in recent months under Donald Trump, officials said US defense secretaryPeteHegsethwon’t even attend the the Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting today – even though he is still coming for a Nato ministerial tomorrow.
The focus then shifts to Nato and major European allies, includingGermanyand the UK. I will keep an eye on this and bring you the key lines from their press conferences this afternoon.
I will also bring you key updates from the developing situation in theGerman city of Cologne, which sees the largest evacuation since the end of the second world war as it deals with the discovery of three wartime bombs in the city centre, and updates on government crises in the Netherlands and Poland.
Let’s see what the day brings us.
It’sWednesday, 4 June 2025, it’sJakub Krupahere, and this isEurope Live.
Good morning.