The European Union and the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ announced on Monday 24 August, the anniversary of Ukraine’s independence, that they were stepping up their support for Kyiv, which has been subjected to heavy Russian air strikes in recent weeks.
While 376 missile strikes were recorded in July alone, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that, whereas in 2023 his country had received 675 Patriot missiles, in 2025 it had received “only 364”. “For 2026, according to current projections, that figure stands at 264”, he added, saying that he wanted to receive at least 300 missiles for next winter.
In order to support Kyiv, the European Commission approved on Monday funding of €6.1 billion for new acquisitions of defence equipment for Ukraine. This funding covers air and missile defence systems, missiles, ammunition and radar.
The funding comes under the €90 billion Ukraine support loan. It brings the amounts already approved under the procurement plans to €16 billion, of which €8.35 billion has been disbursed.
Since 2022, the EU and its Member States have provided support to Ukraine amounting to €220.2 billion, including €3.8 billion from the proceeds of the sale of frozen Russian assets, the European Commission noted in its press release.
From Kyiv, following a videoconference meeting of the ‘Coalition of the Willing’, European Council President António Costa confirmed that the EU was accelerating the deployment of the Ukraine support loan in order to strengthen its air defence and energy infrastructure.
“Pressure on the Russian economy and its support fleet will continue and intensify. Russia must engage seriously in peace negotiations. Escalation is not the solution; diplomacy is”, he stressed.
The EU High Representative, Kaja Kallas, announced that she would propose tougher sanctions against Russia this autumn and that the EU was tightening the noose even further around the Russian ‘shadow fleet’.
Mr Costa also called for security to be restored in the Black Sea and called on Russia to allow the export of Ukrainian grain to the rest of the world.
Earlier in the day, he had promised that Europe would continue to provide Ukraine with “all the support necessary, for as long as necessary – during the war, in peace negotiations and for reconstruction”.
The co-chairs of the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ — French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz — underlined, in a joint statement, the determination of the coalition’s members “to increase military support for Ukraine, to strengthen its air defence as an absolute priority, to intensify cooperation with its defence industry and to share relevant technologies, notably through the Anti-Ballistic Coalition”.
On 22 August, Emmanuel Macron announced the dispatch of new interceptor missiles to Ukraine to “give it all the means necessary to defend its skies” and the British government authorised defence group MBDA to disclose classified information on the British components of the long-range SCALP missile, while Ukraine and France are considering establishing local assembly lines in Ukraine.
The coalition leaders also undertook to step up sanctions on Russia’s military-industrial complex and those supporting it, and to continue efforts to constrain Russian financial resources intended for the war through sanctions, broader economic measures and tougher action against sanctions circumvention and the Russian ‘shadow fleet’.
The leaders also agreed on the urgency of providing immediate assistance to Ukraine’s energy sector ahead of next winter and insisted on the need to continue supporting Ukraine’s economic resilience in the face of intensifying Russian attempts to reimpose its maritime blockade on Ukrainian ports.
See the statement by the coalition’s co-chairs: https://aeur.eu/f/n4e
NATO. In addition, on 3 August, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), General Alexus G. Grynkewich, welcomed the new commander of NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), US Lieutenant General Guillaume N. Beaurpere. He succeeds Lieutenant General Curtis A. Buzzard, who had held the post since 2024. A European or Canadian officer will take command of NSATU in about a year’s time.
NATO also announced that certain aspects of the work carried out by the Security Assistance Group – Ukraine (SAG-U) would be transferred to NSATU, in order to enable “more effective, efficient and sustainable support, thanks to increased European leadership”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)