Ukraine and nine other countries have announced that they are forming a coalition to protect Europe from ballistic missiles. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and leaders of Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom said they recognised the growing threat posed by ballistic missiles, which are harder to stop than cruise missiles or drones.

The 10 nations said in a statement in Paris that their goal is to build a shared ballistic missile defence capability for Europe, taking advantage of Kyiv’s experience of fighting Russia’s full-scale invasion for over four years. The statement gave no time frame for setting up the defence system, and said the plan remained open to other countries.