Brussels 15.10.2025 Today NATO defence ministers convene in Brussels to confront growing concerns that Russia is testing the alliance’s resolve with escalating airspace violations and drone incursions. Ministers will also seek to support Ukraine’s efforts to counter Russian attacks as Washington reflects upon the supply of longer-range Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv.

🔴Live: Watch @SecGenNATO Mark Rutte's remarks with @SecWar Pete Hegseth#DefMinhttps://t.co/BxnhkGdYzE

— NATO Spokesperson (@NATOpress) October 15, 2025

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“We had an extremely successful Summit in the Hague, we agreed, as you know, to ramp up defence spending to 5% including 3.5[%] on core defence and 1.5[%] on all the important defence related issues” said NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at doorstep of the meeting.

“It was a Summit where we also discussed the defence industrial production, to ramp that up and to make sure that Ukraine is as strong as possible, staying in the fight. And today, we will touch on all those issues, and of course, on what happened just recently – the drones. How to make sure that we can do even more to protect NATO against also these new developments. So this will be an important day.

“We will have Ukraine during the day in the lunch, we have a NATO-Ukraine Council, where Denys Shmyhal , the Defence Minister will be participating, and also Kaja Kallas – the EU High Representative. And then we will have later today – after I’ve seen you in the press conference, I look forward to that of course – we will have a Ukraine Defence Contact Group where we will discuss ramping up the support for Ukraine even further under the leadership of the two Defence Ministers of Germany and the United Kingdom, Boris Pistorius and John Healey.

“And one of the issues we’ll be discussing is this new programme, which we launched only in August, the programme where the United States is again delivering essential, lethal and non-lethal military support to Ukraine, paid for by Allies, already 2 billion committed. And I have every reason to assume today that many other countries will sign up. This is crucial stuff, including air defence systems and particularly interceptors, important for Ukraine to make sure that their civilian population, their crucial infrastructure, is as much protected as possible against the continuous Russian onslaught”

BREAKING:

U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matt Whitaker says “some big announcements” will be made tomorrow about U.S. weapons being sold to Ukraine with European funds under NATO’s PURL program.

Tomahawks? pic.twitter.com/QbLYINQK7x

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 14, 2025

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NATO defence ministers will regard the increase of the Alliance’s ability to counter Russian air incursions, as fears grow that Moscow is testing the West.

Focus will also be on bolstering support for Ukraine as US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth joins his 31 NATO counterparts with his boss, President Donald Trump, considering the supply of long-range missiles to Kyiv.

The gathering in Brussels comes after Moscow rattled NATO with a series of high-profile airspace violations in Poland and Estonia that fuelled fears of conflict spilling over its border.