Russia unleashed one of its largest aerial assaults on Ukraine in recent months hours before Britain and Germany chaired a meeting Monday to discuss U.S. President Donald Trump’s plans for NATO allies to provide Ukraine with weapons.

The drone and missile attack on Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, killed two people and wounded 15, including a 12-year-old, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. The deadly assault underscored the urgency of Ukraine’s need for further Western military aid, especially in air defense, a week after Trump said deliveries would arrive in Ukraine within days.

A drone struck the entrance to a subway station in Kyiv’s Shevchenkivskyi district where people had taken cover. Videos posted on social media showed the station platform engulfed by smoke, with dozens inside. The heaviest strikes hit the city’s Darnytskyi district, where a kindergarten, supermarket and warehouse facilities caught fire.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, who arrived in Kyiv on Monday for talks with Zelenskyy, visited some of the damaged area.

Zelenskyy and Barrot spoke about expanding defense cooperation, including a decision by French companies to start manufacturing drones in Ukraine, and advancing Ukraine’s path toward European Union membership, the Ukrainian leader said on social media.

The virtual meeting of high-level military officials was led by British Defense Secretary John Healey and his German counterpart Boris Pistorius. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and NATO leader Mark Rutte, as well as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, attended the so-called Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting.

Moscow has intensified its long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities, and analysts say the barrages are likely to escalate as Russian drone production expands.

Ukraine’s new Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal urged allies to speed up deliveries of American air defense systems under the plan put forward by Trump.

“I request the U.S. to make these weapons available for purchase, and our European partners to extend all the needed financing for their procurement,” Shmyhal, who until recently served as prime minister, told the meeting.

Trump’s arms plan, announced a week ago, involves European nations sending American weapons, including Patriot air defense missile systems, to Ukraine via NATO — either from existing stockpiles or buying and donating new ones.

In an shift of tone toward Russia, Trump last week gave Moscow a 50-day deadline to agree to a ceasefire or face tougher sanctions.