British Defense Minister John Healey, who chaired the first meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (Ramstein format) in Brussels, said that Ukraine's rightful place is in NATO, but this process will take some time.

At a press conference after the 26th meeting of the group he said that have always been clear that Ukraine's rightful place is in NATO. This is a process that will take some time. In the meantime, his duty as Defense Minister, the duty of the countries gathered there, is to ensure that Ukraine has the strongest possible position during any negotiations in the future, he said.

Earlier at the meeting, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the United States does not believe that Ukraine's membership in NATO could be a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement, and that any security guarantees should be backed up by European and non-European troops whose mission would not be a NATO mission.