European leaders stress 'urgent need' to bolster Ukraine's defenses against Russian ballistic missiles

By — Pan Pylas, Associated Press Pan Pylas, Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/european-leaders-stress-urgent-need-to-bolster-ukraines-defenses-against-russian-ballistic-missiles Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter European leaders stress 'urgent need' to bolster Ukraine's defenses against Russian ballistic missiles World Jun 7, 2026 6:40 PM EDT LONDON (AP) — The leaders of the U.K., Ukraine, France and Germany discussed the "urgent need" to ramp up production of weapons to combat Russia's powerful hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missiles in a meeting in London on Sunday. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at 10 Downing Street. READ MORE: Zelenskyy asks Trump for more U.S. air defense help against Russian missile attacks, Kyiv says In a statement released by Starmer's office following their evening meeting, the leaders condemned Russia's "large-scale missile and drone attacks — including the repeated use of the Oreshnik missiles — on Ukrainian cities with a tragic toll on civilians." They also condemned Russia's "irresponsible and dangerous Russian drone incursions" into NATO territory, including last month's in Romania. Russia has stepped up its aerial campaign against Ukraine recently, most notably with the launch of the Oreshnik missiles. "The leaders underlined the urgent need to scale up the production of interceptors and co-develop anti-ballistic missile and deep strike capabilities," the leaders said. No details, financial or otherwise, on how this would be done were provided. Ukraine's shortage of air defense systems, in part because of the depletion of U.S. stocks during the Iran war, has left civilians especially vulnerable to ballistic missiles, even as Kyiv's defenses stop most of Moscow's drones and its forces have made advances elsewhere on the battlefield. READ MORE: Putin rejects Zelenskyy's offer to meet, saying he sees 'no point' in it The worry for Ukrainians is that the Iran war, which has been in abeyance for weeks, may now reignite after Iran launched missiles on Sunday at Israel in the first such bombardment since a fragile ceasefire took effect in early April, complicating mediation efforts for a deal to end the war. Following their meeting in London, the European leaders called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree "an immediate and complete ceasefire" with the current line of contact as a starting point for any negotiations. The U.K., France and Germany, the so-called E3 group of European nations, have been prominent backers of Ukraine following Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. The U.K. and France lead the "coalition of the willing" initiative to provide security guarantees for Ukraine as part of a peace process. The meeting comes in the wake of a Russian drone strike that killed three peop