EU pledges €6.1bn for Ukraine, including aid for Patriot interceptors

JUST IN: EU pledges €6.1bn for Ukraine, including funding for Patriot air-defence interceptors, as Brussels pushes member states to donate systems from national stockpiles.

Brussels just put six point one billion euros on the table for Ukraine.

The pledge includes money for Patriot interceptors, the missiles that actually knock Russian ballistic weapons out of the sky. This is the system we're talking about, and every one of those interceptors costs millions and gets used exactly once. Ukraine burns through them faster than anyone can build them.

And here's the part that stings in European capitals. Brussels isn't just writing a cheque, it's leaning on member states to hand over Patriot systems from their own national stockpiles. That's a much harder ask. Cash is easy. Giving up the launcher protecting your own airspace, when a wider war is on everyone's mind, is not.

So the money is real, but the hardware still has to come from somewhere. And right now, every government in Europe is counting its own interceptors first.

This is Dave King, reporting for HIT.