Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky renewed calls for Ukraine to join NATO on the first day of the alliance’s summit in Ankara, Turkey.
Thanking leaders “who have clearly stated Ukraine belongs in NATO, because NATO with Ukraine is the alliance for the future,” he asked: “Do you really believe it would be right to leave outside NATO, a country and a people with this level of defensive capability?”
Zelensky pointed towards Ukraine’s advanced drone technology and argued it makes sense for these “capabilities to become a part of the alliance’s collective defense.”
Ukraine’s pursuit for NATO membership has long been documented and is a point of contention for Russia. At the annual NATO summit last year, former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said: “NATO has no business in Ukraine. Ukraine is not a member of NATO, neither Russia, my job is to keep it as it is.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has previously told Zelensky to forgo his NATO ambitions “if he wants to” end the Russia conflict.
Zelensky has had more success in his endeavor to join the European Union, as Ukraine moved a step closer to E.U. membershiplast month after member states opened the crucial first negotiating cluster.
In his NATO summit address, Zelensky also doubled down on his call for allies to deliver air defense systems, insisting Ukraine needs U.S.-made interceptors to defend itself against Russia’s ballistic missiles.
Currently, the top-end of European air defense capability relies heavily on U.S.-made Patriot missile defense systems, but Zelensky said “Europe urgently needs its own capability to produce anti-ballistic systems and the missiles they require.”
“The one thing we still need to do here in Europe is build a strong defense against Russia’s ballistic missiles. It’s a big challenge… this is Russia’s last major advantage,” he added.
Zelensky’s public appeal comes after after Russia bombarded Kyiv with drones and missiles in another deadly attack in the early hours of Monday morning.
NATO announces further spending on counter-drone capabilities and drone training
Ahead of Zelensky’s address, NATO’s Secretary General Mark Rutte announced new investments and planned spending on air capabilities, focusing heavily on drone advancements.
Rutte confirmed the purchase of five Triton high-altitude drones, a fleet of Airbus A400M aircraft, and 10 SAAB GlobalEye aircraft for air warning and surveillance. “GlobalEye will provide simultaneous surveillance across air, maritime, and land domains from a single platform,” he said.
In total,NATO allies announced that over $40 billion will be invested in counter-drone capabilities over the next five years. They also aim to train five times as many drone operators by the end of 2027.
“We are on the cusp of this transatlantic defense industrial revolution,” said Rutte.
But despite the proposed investments, Trump—who has heavily criticized the defense spending of European allies—remained hesitant.
Asked if he was satisfied with the spending plans, he responded: “We’re going to see. I was very disappointed with NATO.”
Trump repeated his argument that the U.S. was let down by NATO allies who refused to get actively involved in the Iran war. He said if the summit had not been held in Turkey, which is led by his ally President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, then it’s “possible” he would not have attended.
“We weren’t treated well… we did something in Iran, we don’t need anyone else’s help, I didn’t even want their help,” Trump argued.
Rutte, who is often referred to as the “Trump whisperer” on account of his diplomatic approach,” reiterated the level of spending already seen from members since countries agreed to assign 5% of annual GDP to “core defence requirements as well as defence-and security-related spending” by 2035 at last year’s summit.
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