Ukraine’s New Defense Minister Hits Up the US, Germany and Britain for Help vs. Russian Missiles

Ukraine’s acting Defense Minister Yevhen Khmara’s first week in his new job at the top of his country’s war effort was dominated by meetings with major allies, with the topic of how to stop Russian ballistic missiles from blasting his country’s homes and businesses at the top of the agenda, official statements and Monday news reports said. News reports on talks from July 24 to 28 said the newly appointed Khmara also prioritized, in discussions with US, British, and German officials, expanding joint weapons production with Ukraine and sharing his country’s cutting-edge combat experience with leading NATO member states. The meetings went well, but Ukraine received no new offers of critically needed interceptor missiles, those reports said.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Khmara, 39, is a Ukrainian special operations officer and intelligence veteran. He first saw combat as a commando fighting Russian and separatist troops invading eastern Ukraine in 2014. Known as a skilled and innovative special mission commander, Khmara was a lead planner for Ukraine’s June 2025 Operation Spiderweb that used remotely-controlled drones concealed in cargo trucks to swarm attack four Russian military airfields, damaging or destroying a claimed 41 Kremlin strategic bombers. He received the Defense Ministry portfolio on July 16. Khmara’s first major international meeting was with US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker in Kyiv on July 24. Talks centered on how Ukraine’s air defense might be strengthened, particularly by accelerating US deliveries of Patriot interceptor missiles, and possibly increasing US deliveries of US-made precision-guided munitions for long-range strikes, the Interfax news agency reported. Other Topics of Interest Russian Navy's New Yasen-M Class Perm Submarine to Integrate Zircon Cruise Missiles Reports suggest the submarine could be equipped with 32 Zircon missiles – slightly more than Russia’s known annual production number. In post-meeting comments to reporters reported by the Defense Ministry information platform, Khmara pushed the Kyiv position that Ukrainian experience with drones and asymmetric warfare would be of use to the US and NATO, and called for broader technological cooperation with NATO member states. Since Russia’s second invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 2022, the United States has been Ukraine’s largest single military donor, providing roughly US$65 billion in military assistance. Major equipment has included Patriot air-defense systems and interceptor missiles, precision-guided HIMARS rockets and ATACMS missiles, NASAMS air-defense systems, Abrams tanks and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, thousands of Javelin and TOW anti-tank weapons and more than a million artillery rounds from US stocks. Once a bedrock ally and the mainstay of international military support to Ukraine, the US in Feb. 2025, following the inauguration of President Donald Trump, abandoned its pro-Ukraine policy for a strategy of starving Ukraine of weaponry in order to force Ukraine to capitulate to Russia. Following the start of a war between the US and Iran in June 2026, Pentagon officials said its supplies of Patriot interceptors – the only practical means the Ukrainian military has of intercepting an incoming Russian ballistic missile – are so short that the US would not be able to sell Ukraine interceptors in substantial numbers for at least two years. Ukrainian media reported the Khmara-Whitaker meetings, though positive and friendly, produced no agreement on increased Patriot interceptor missile sales by the US to Ukraine. According to the official Ukrainian military information platform Militarny, on July 25 Khmara and his staff spoke with newly-appointed British Defense Secretary Wes Streeting in a remote, official conversation. A British Ministry of Defense (MoD) statement said the discussion was unusually detailed, covering continued support for Ukrainian acquisition of Sweden’s modern Gripen fighter jet, a multi-role aircraft with about one-third of its components produced in the United Kingdom. The Khmara-Streeting initial talks also covered delivery to Ukraine and fielding of Meteor air-to-air missiles, an advanced weapon which, once received, would give Ukrainian combat pilots missiles superior to those carried by Russian fighters. Financing of Ukrainian manufacturing and procurement of middle-strike and deep-strike drones via interest earnings from frozen Russian assets, and the exchange of operational lessons from the war, were also discussed, Ukraine’s Channel 5 television reported. The United Kingdom has committed approximately $13 to 16 billion in direct military assistance to Ukraine, with initial deliveries centering on anti-tank and infantry-operated short-range air defense weapons, and later transfers including modern Storm Shadow cruise missiles, Challenger 2 main battle tanks, self-propelled howitzers, armored vehicles, drones, and anti-aircraft systems. The British Army has led the international training effort for soldiers joining the Ukrainian military, training tens of thousands of new recruits. Close cooperation between Ukraine’s and Britain’s special services dates back to the early days of the war and is mostly classified. The development and combat use of increasingly sophisticated robot kamikaze motor boats in the Sea of Azov and Black Sea against is probably the best-known joint effort to reach the public. Khmara met in Kyiv on 27 and 28 July with German Ambassador Heiko Thoms and embassy staff, again with improving Ukraine’s air defenses at the top of the Ukrainian agenda. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense information platform ArmyInform, Khmara specifically asked Germany to accelerate deliveries of Patriot interceptor missiles to defend against growing Russian ballistic missile attacks against Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure. Wider German participation in developing Ukrainian air defense manufacturing, particularly joint production of missiles, ammunition and combat vehicles, was also discussed. In early July, the new German government led by Prime Minister Friedrich Merz and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius called on allied states to join a coalition to donate Patriot interceptor missiles to Ukraine to help defend against Russian ballistic missile strikes. The appeal mostly fell on deaf ears save for a small contribution (reportedly five missiles) delivered by Poland. Russia typically launches at least 50 ballistic missiles at Ukraine a month, each with a half-ton+ high explosive warhead, sufficient to level the upper stories of a typical Ukrainian apartment building. As of late July, at least 1,396 Ukrainian civilians have died and at least 7,978 civilians injured by Russian bomb or missile strikes, figures published by the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) say. Germany currently is Ukraine’s largest European military supporter and on track to outstrip the US, having committed roughly US$46–48 billion in military aid and related security assistance. Top German contributions include the highly-regarded IRIS-T SLM and SLS air-defense systems and Patriot batteries and interceptors. Germany has also turned over to Ukraine hundreds of armored vehicles, including Leopard 2 and Leopard 1 main battle tanks, Marder infantry fighting vehicles, Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, and Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled howitzers. In 2025 to 26, that assistance has widened to medium-range strike drones and plans for in-Ukraine production of artillery ammunition and combat vehicles.