European states pledge to boost air defence support for Ukraine

Five major European countries have pledged to help strengthen Ukraine’s air defences as Russia intensifies its efforts to strike the country’s energy infrastructure as winter approaches.

Defence ministers from France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom met in Paris on Monday and promised to boost political, military and financial support for Kyiv.

In a joint statement, the group, known as the E5, also backed security guarantees to be provided by a coalition of Ukraine’s allies once a ceasefire or peace agreement is reached.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said the five countries have assembled winter aid packages and are working with Ukraine on building an air-defence system that will supplement existing defences, including United States-made Patriot missile systems, according to the dpa news agency.

Pistorius said the ministers would also try to ensure Washington continues providing military supplies, intelligence and satellite data.

British Defence Secretary Wes Streeting urged European allies to do more together, reiterating his country’s support for Ukraine “for as long as it takes”.

The ministers also committed to step up efforts to tackle Russia’s shadow fleet, a network of ships used to circumvent restrictions on its oil trade.

The pledge to provide Ukraine with additional air defence capabilities came as a United Nations-appointed commission of inquiry labelled Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In findings released on Monday, it said Russian forces had deliberately struck facilities essential to civilians, with older people among those exposed to prolonged winter power and heating outages.

Russia has targeted Ukraine’s ability to operate heating for the civilian population since early in its war on its neighbour, which began with a full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Attacks across Ukraine and Russia

While Ukraine’s European allies were meeting, the results of Russia’s latest attacks were reported.

The Russian Ministry of Defence claimed its forces hit a power station in ‌Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, as well as a nearby warehouse, and a power station in the Khmelnytskyi region.

Port infrastructure in Chornomorsk in the southwest, and a cargo vessel en route to Odesa, which the ministry claimed was being used for military purposes, were also targeted.

A Russian strike on the southeastern city ⁠of Zaporizhzhia injured several people on Monday morning, according to regional Governor Mykhailo Semikin. A further two people were injured in the Chernihiv region, Ukraine’s emergency service ⁠said on Telegram.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone attack on Voronezh in Russia killed two people and wounded 17, regional Governor Alexander Gusev said.

“A significant number of the injured, including two seriously wounded, were on a train that was moving in the left-bank suburb of Voronezh when debris from a UAV fell on it,” he said on Telegram.

The attack also caused fires at “a number of industrial businesses (without significant damage), a business centre in the central part of the city, and a residential building”, the governor added.

More than four and a half years into the war, attacks have been escalating between Ukrainian and Russian forces, with Ukraine targeting Russian oil refineries and Russian forces bombarding Ukraine with relentless air strikes.

Negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the US are expected to meet in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates in the first half of November.

In an interview aired ⁠on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that for Kyiv to halt the strikes on Russian oil refineries, which US President Donald Trump has demanded, Moscow must stop hitting Ukraine’s power ‌infrastructure.

Zelenskyy said if the Russians continue to hit Ukraine’s power infrastructure, the US should be willing to allow the use of Starshield over Russia to detect missile ‌launch ‌sites, or supply Ukraine with Patriot missiles.

Ukraine said on Saturday that the Starlink satellite system and its military version, Starshield, were now fully functional after ⁠more than a week of restrictions that disrupted military operations and intensified tensions with the US.