United to win: Netherlands joins advanced drone coalition to aid Ukraine
Photo: Office of the President
The Netherlands is joining a military alliance supplying Ukraine with cutting-edge drone technology.
The Minister of Defense of the Netherlands, Kajsa Ollongren, stated this in an interview with Reuters.
"Of course, we know that drones are very important in this war. That's why we're joining the drone coalition that Ukraine launched with Latvia and other countries to ensure that we're doing just that — increasing production, using the latest technology, and providing precisely what Ukraine needs," said the minister.
It should be noted that at the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in the "Ramstein" format on January 23, another country – the Netherlands – joined the IT coalition.
As reported in the department, the new coalition member has already contributed the amount of €10 million.
The Ministry of Defense noted that the goal of the IT coalition is to support the Ministry and Ukraine's armed forces in the field of IT, communications, and cyber security.
In addition to the Netherlands, 11 other countries are participating in the initiative: Ukraine, Belgium, Great Britain, Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Japan.
Separately from the Netherlands, during the work of the Contact Group, Denmark allocated 91 million Danish kroner (over €12 million) for cyber defense of Ukraine within the IT coalition.
For reference:
The IT coalition is a particular group of states within the Ukraine Defense Contact Group ( in the "Ramstein format") under the leadership of Estonia and Luxembourg.
During the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) meeting on September 19, the defense ministers of Ukraine, Estonia, and Luxembourg held a kick-off meeting of the new IT coalition within the framework of the "Ramstein format".
In addition, as Rubryka previously reported, Norway and Great Britain created a maritime coalition to support Ukraine. They note that the new association will supply ships and other means of transport to the Ukrainian defenders for conducting combat operations at sea.
In this regard, Great Britain, within the framework of the new naval coalition, was to hand over two minesweepers to Ukraine. However, Türkiye, citing a convention that straits it controls must be closed to warships of warring parties, said it would not let them through.
Also, Ukraine and Latvia created the Coalition of Drones and Electronic Warfare Systems, which will be joined by other allied countries.
The head of the Latvian Defense Department, Andris Spruds, said that the Baltic country is participating in the creation of a coalition of almost 20 countries to arm the Ukrainian military with "thousands" of new unmanned aerial vehicles.
Earlier, the prime ministers of the Netherlands and Great Britain agreed to work on forming an international coalition of fighter jets for Ukraine. Denmark joined them.
Recently, Ukraine's partner countries have been discussing an increase in the number of aircraft that will be transferred to the Air Force of Ukraine's armed forces: as soon as all technical issues are resolved, Kyiv will receive F-16 fighters.
Also, on January 18, France, the United States, and more than 20 other countries created an artillery coalition in Paris to help Ukraine repel Russian aggression.
