Pentagon chief skips out: What to expect from the 28th Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting

Key questions:

• Why is the Pentagon chief not attending the meeting for the first time in three years?
• Where and when is the 28th UDCG taking place?
• Who will chair the meeting?
• Who will represent Ukraine at the meeting in Brussels?
• What new assistance will Ukraine receive?

Today’s meeting is hosted by the Belgian capital, Brussels, where NATO headquarters is located. The meeting will once again be chaired by UK Defense Secretary John Healey and his German counterpart Boris Pistorius.

“On Wednesday, 4 June 2025, the United Kingdom and Germany will convene the Ukraine Defence Contact Group at NATO HQ,” reads a statement on the North Atlantic Alliance’s website.

It will be Germany’s second time chairing a Ramstein meeting and the UK’s third.

Both countries assumed this leadership in February of this year after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that the United States would no longer play a key role in the regular meetings initiated by former Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin in April 2022.

First UDCG without the Pentagon chief

Notably, the current US Secretary of Defense will miss the meeting for the first time in three years.

The Associated Press, citing an unnamed US official, reports that Pete Hegseth will not attend Ramstein, not even via video link.

The Pentagon chief, who returned on Sunday from a national security conference in Singapore, will arrive in Brussels only this evening after the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting concludes.

According to AP, this move is the latest in a series of steps the US has taken to distance itself from the war in Ukraine.

According to Politico, citing Pentagon spokesperson Kingsley Wilson, Hegseth will not be at the meeting because his schedule made it impossible.

“Secretary Hegseth’s travel schedule precluded attendance at tomorrow’s UDCG meeting. The United States is focused on ending the war in Ukraine as quickly as possible, on terms that establish an enduring peace,” Wilson said.

Politico learned that US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker will attend in Hegseth’s place today.

Meeting agenda

NATO’s website has already published the schedule for today’s Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting (all times Kyiv time):

• 12:30 pm – Press conference by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte
• 3:00 pm – Arrival of participants and opening remarks
• 3:00 pm – Speeches by NATO Secretary General and Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov
• 4:00 pm – Opening of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting
• 6:30 pm – Joint press conference

Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov will attend the meeting. Tomorrow, in a smaller format, NATO defense ministers will meet to finalize preparations for the NATO summit in the Netherlands later this month.

A Ukraine-NATO Council meeting is expected tomorrow, where the Pentagon chief is also likely to be absent, according to Radio Liberty.

What to expect

At today’s meeting, the UK Defense Secretary is expected to announce an additional £247 million ($333 million) in funding this year for training Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel under Operation Interflex.

Since 2022, this operation has provided basic combat training to more than 55,000 Ukrainian troops with the participation of 13 partner countries.

The UK will also confirm the completion of deliveries of 140,000 artillery shells to Ukraine since the beginning of 2025.

The country also plans to invest a record £350 million ($473 million) this year to increase the number of drones supplied to Ukraine to 100,000.

Overall, new aid packages for Ukraine are expected from other countries, as well as further details on previously committed support.

About UDCG and the previous meeting

The first meeting took place on April 26, 2022, at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany – one of the main US military bases in Europe. That is why the initiative received the informal name “Ramstein” or “Ramstein meeting.”

Although subsequent meetings have taken place in other countries (e.g., Brussels or online), the name “Ramstein” has remained as a symbol of united international support for Ukraine.

Within the initiative, many decisions were made on supplying Ukraine with HIMARS, Patriot, Leopard 2, Abrams systems, and more.

The previous meeting was also held in Brussels, again chaired by Germany and the United Kingdom.

It was attended by ministers from Europe, Asia, and the United States. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the participants online from Kryvyi Rih, which had been attacked by Russia, urging allies to provide Ukraine with additional Patriot air defense systems to protect peaceful cities from Russian attacks.

For the outcomes of the 27th meeting, see a separate RBC-Ukraine report.

Sources: NATO website, UK Ministry of Defence press service, articles by AFP, Associated Press, Politico, Radio Liberty.