Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans, during a surprise visit to Kyiv on Sunday, said his country would invest EUR 400 million in developing drones for Ukraine and would supply more F-16s in the coming months, Reuters said.

"The war, of course, is intensifying every day, and Ukraine is setting up more brigades who all need support, who all need military equipment. We need to have this continuous flow of support," Brekelmans told Reuters in Kyiv.

He said the drone action plan would combine Ukrainian innovation and Dutch expertise to improve technologies used on the battlefield.

"We will focus on different types of drones, so both surveillance drones, more defensive drones, but also the attack drones, because we see that Ukraine needs those more offensive drones also to target military facilities," Brekelmans said.

About half of the investment will be spent in the Netherlands, while the rest will be distributed between Ukraine and other countries, he said.

If the drones developed are successful, more funds will be allocated to expand production, according to the defense minister.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, the Netherlands has pledged EUR 10 billion in military support to Ukraine and has already spent about EUR 4 billion on aid.

Visiting the city of Kharkiv on Saturday, which was bombed by Russian glider bombs, Brekelmans said that attacking military targets in Russia was the only way to protect the city.

The Netherlands has contributed to the air defense support by persuading international partners to supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets and has promised to provide 24 aircraft. The first batch of aircraft from the Netherlands is already operating in Ukrainian airspace, the minister said, with the rest to be delivered "in the coming months and possibly early next year."

The country is also supplying spare parts, ammunition and fuel for the planes, he said, and is seeking to expand pilot training by meeting with partner countries and private players such as Lockheed Martin to keep the planes operational.

The Netherlands has also announced a plan to assemble a Patriot air defense system for Ukraine using components from various countries, but Brekelmans said it had difficulty sourcing some of them. He said Ukraine is already using one Patriot radar supplied by the Netherlands, and "three launchers are going to be delivered very soon."