Germany announces new military aid package for Ukraine, including 100,000 shells and four IRIS-T systems

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has said that Germany's new aid package to Ukraine will include four IRIS-T air defence systems and 100,000 pieces of artillery ammunition.

According to the German television news channel n-tv, Pistorius made this statement on the sidelines of a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (also known as the Ramstein group) in Brussels.

The package will also include 15 Leopard 1 battle tanks and reconnaissance drones.

In addition, Pistorius spoke about the prospects of acquiring new IRIS-T systems in the coming years and the delivery of 1,100 additional ground surveillance radars.

The Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting is being held in Brussels on 11 April under the joint leadership of the United Kingdom and Germany.

The previous meeting – the first since the change of US administration – was also held in Brussels on 12 February, chaired by the UK.

At that meeting, US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth declared that a return to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is not a realistic goal and that the US does not consider NATO membership for Ukraine a realistic outcome of a negotiated war settlement.

Previous Ramstein group meetings under the Joe Biden administration were chaired by the United States.