U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said meetings like the one on Tuesday with more than 40 NATO allies and other partner nations will now occur monthly.

"To ensure that we continue to build on our progress, we're going to extend this forum beyond today," Austin said during a news conference at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

"I'm proud to announce that today's gathering will become a monthly contact group on Ukraine's self-defense," he said.

The meetings will focus on strengthening Ukraine's military both in the short and long terms, Austin said.

"The contact group will be a vehicle for nations of good will to intensify our efforts and coordinate our assistance and focus on winning today's fight and the struggles to come," Austin said. "The monthly meetings may be in person, virtual, or mixed."

Austin, who visited Ukraine on Sunday with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, praised Tuesday's meeting with NATO allies, saying, "We're all coming away with a transparent and shared understanding of a challenge that Ukrainians face."

Austin conveyed a sense of urgency for the international community to help the Ukrainians.

"I applaud all of the countries that have risen, and are rising, to this moment," he said. "But we don’t have any time to waste. The briefings today laid out clearly why the coming weeks will be so crucial for Ukraine. So, we’ve got to move at the speed of war."

Austin thanked Germany for hosting Tuesday's meeting and for offering to send Ukraine 50 Cheetah anti-aircraft systems. He also thanked the United Kingdom for its announcement Monday that it would provide Ukraine additional anti-aircraft capabilities.

"We held an important session today with long-term support for Ukraine’s defenses, including what that will take from our defense industrial bases," Austin said. "That means dealing with the tremendous demand that we’re facing for munitions and weapons platforms, and giving our staunch support to Ukraine while also meeting our own requirements, and those of our allies and partners."

-ABC News' Matt Syler

A Soviet-era statue that has stood in the capital of Ukraine since 1982 and once symbolized the friendship between Russia and Ukraine was taken down on Tuesday in response to the war between the two countries.

An ABC News crew was on-hand in Kyiv as a large crane removed the bronze "People's Friendship" statue from its pedestal.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the statue, a gift from the former Soviet Union, is being dismantled because of the “brutal killing and a desire to destroy our state.”

The statue depicts two workers, a Russian and a Ukrainian, holding up a Soviet Order of Friendship of Peoples. The monument was dedicated in November 1982 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the USSR and the 1,500th anniversary of Kyiv.

Klitschko said a 164-foot-tall titanium rainbow-shaped arch the statue rested under will remain and be illuminated with the colors of the Ukrainian flag.

-ABC News' Marcus Moore

The U.S. will "keep moving heaven and earth" to supply aid to Ukraine, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Tuesday at a meeting of the Ukraine Security Consultative Group, which includes military representatives from about 40 countries.

“Ukraine clearly believes it can win. And so does everyone here,” Austin said in his opening remarks at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. “I know that we’re all determined to do everything we can to support Ukraine’s needs as the fight evolves.”

Austin said the group would seek to leave with a common understanding of “Ukraine’s near term security requirements, because we’re going to keep moving heaven and earth so that we can meet them.”

Russian forces appeared to be moving to encircle “heavily fortified” Ukrainian positions in the east, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday.

“The city of Kreminna has reportedly fallen and heavy fighting is reported south of Izium, as Russian forces attempt to advance towards the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk from the north and east,” the ministry said in its latest intelligence update.

Ukrainian forces in Zaporizhzhia were preparing for an attack from the south, the ministry said.

White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan hinted Thursday of more sanctions coming against Russia in the "next week or two" aimed at targeting ways Moscow is evading sanctions already imposed.

“Where our focus will be over the course of the coming days is on evasion,” Sullivan said Thursday at the Economic Club of Washington. “As Russia tries to adjust to the fact that it’s under this massive economic pressure, what steps do they take to try to evade our sanctions and how do we crack down on that? And I think we'll have some announcements in the next week or two that identify targets that are trying to facilitate that evasion both inside Russia and beyond."

When Sullivan was asked whether sanctions will automatically be lifted if a negotiated peace deal between Russia and Ukraine is worked out, he appeared cautious with his words, saying, “a lot of that depends on what the shape and scope” of the agreement is.

“A lot of it depends on what the Ukrainians, in consultation with us and the Europeans come to agree to," Sullivan said. "You know, we're not going to do a deal over the head of the Ukrainians where we give a bunch of sanctions relief to Russia. But if some measure of sanctions relief were built in to some credible diplomatic solution led by the Ukrainians, that's something that we would happily discuss."

But Sullivan said Russian oligarchs shouldn't expect to ever get back their yachts and other assets seized under sanctions that have been imposed, saying the ultimate goal is "not to give them back” once the war is over.

“The president is actively looking at how we can deal with the fact that as we seize these assets, our goal is not to give them back. Our goal is to put them to a better use than that," Sullivan said. "But I'll be careful in what I say today because there's an ongoing kind of policy process around how we end up dealing with that question. But, rest assured, that the goal is not just to sit on them for a while."

-ABC News' Justin Gomez