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Lloyd Austin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy sit at a table in front of their countries’ flags.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Sept. 6, 2024. Austin is slated to lead discussions at the base Jan. 9, 2025, his final meeting of the group. (Stars and Stripes)

STUTTGART, Germany — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin this week will hold his final meeting of a group of about 50 countries that banded together to support Ukraine against Russia’s 2022 invasion.

Austin is slated to lead Ukraine Defense Contact Group discussions Thursday at Ramstein Air Base, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to make an appeal for more air defense systems.

During the gathering of defense ministers and military leaders, Austin will reaffirm the United States’ “enduring commitment to Ukraine,” the Pentagon said.

“Secretary Austin will focus on delivering practical and coordinated support that reinforces Ukraine’s ability to defend itself today and deter aggression in the future,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Friday.

Yet the durability of U.S. military support for Ukraine is in question, as is the fate of the body known informally as the Ramstein group.

In two weeks, President-elect Donald Trump will take office and could bring with him a policy overhaul in how the United States approaches the war in Ukraine.

While it is not clear yet whether Trump will halt U.S. military aid to Kyiv, he has expressed opposition before and said he intends to bring Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table in an attempt to end the war, which began Feb. 24, 2022.

Trump hasn’t laid out how he intends to pursue peace, but his team is said to be considering a plan that would see European troops in charge of a demilitarized zone in Ukraine.

The proposal, reported by The Wall Street Journal in November, would have the U.S. continue to provide arms to Ukraine in exchange for sizable territorial concessions and a deferment of Ukrainian NATO ambitions.

So far, Zelenskyy hasn’t indicated any interest in ceding territory to Russia, which occupies a swath of Ukraine that is roughly the size of Pennsylvania.

But the Ukrainian leader is in a difficult spot given a worsening manpower shortage for his armed forces and his country’s dependence on American military support.

Zelenskyy said he will press Ukraine’s backers at the Ramstein meeting, emphasizing the need for more missile and anti-aircraft systems.

“We will talk to them about this,” he said Saturday in an address to his country. “We will convince them. Life needs protection here and now in Ukraine.”

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John covers U.S. military activities across Europe and Africa. Based in Stuttgart, Germany, he previously worked for newspapers in New Jersey, North Carolina and Maryland. He is a graduate of the University of Delaware.

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