Ukraine Contact Group To Meet Online On July 20 - Pentagon

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th July, 2022) The fourth meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG), headed by the United States, will be held online on July 20, the US Department of Defense said.

On Monday, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke by telephone with his Ukrainian counterpart, Oleksii Reznikov, and discussed US military assistance to Kiev and current situation on the ground.

"Secretary Austin and Minister Reznikov also discussed the agenda for the next Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) to be held virtually on July 20," the Pentagon said in a statement.

The most recent meeting of the contact group on bolstering Ukraine's military capabilities was held on June 15 in Brussels on the sidelines of a NATO ministerial. It gathered defense representatives from about 50 US-allied nations. The inaugural talks in this format took place in April at the US air base Ramstein in Germany. Austin later said that similar high-level meetings would be held each month.

Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine on February 24 responding to calls for help from the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. The US and other Western countries have since been pressuring Moscow with sanctions and supplying arms to Kiev.