Defence minister Ruben Brekelmans and foreign affairs minister Caspar Veldkamp paid a whistle-stop visit to Ukraine after being sworn in last week to underline the Netherlands’ support for the war-torn country.

The two ministers met Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in Odesa, where Brekelmans said the Dutch Patriot surface-to-air missile system would be delivered “within weeks”.

The Netherlands is also expected to deliver the first of 24 F-16 fighter jets “in the short term”. Prime minister Dick Schoof telephoned Zelensky last week to reassure him that Dutch support for Ukraine was “solid as a rock”.

Another €10 million has been committed to help Ukraine improve its IT systems, while €2 million is being spent on a mobile forensic laboratory to aid the investigation of alleged Russian war crimes.

Wilders backs Orbán

The reassurances came as PVV party leader Geert Wilders confirmed that his group of six MEPs will join a far-right European faction assembled by Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, one of the few European leaders still on speaking terms with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Orban visited Zelensky in Kyiv and Putin in Moscow last week after Hungary took over the rotating presidency of the European council, but Zelensky rejected his calls for a ceasefire, arguing that it would only serve to buy Russia time to regroup.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Charles Michel both condemned Orbán’s trip to Moscow and said the Hungarian leader had “no mandate” to speak for the EU after he told Putin: “I am at your disposal”.

Wilders said the Patriots for Europe group, which also includes Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN), would support Ukraine and “protect our Judeo-Christian heritage”.

The group is set to be the third-largest “family” in the European Parliament after the centre-right European People’s Party and the left-wing Socialists and Democrats.