U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he will possibly meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during this week’s NATO summit, potentially giving Kyiv an opportunity to push for the purchase of U.S. Patriot missile systems and stronger sanctions against Russia.
The two-day gathering is intended to signal to Russian President Vladimir Putin that NATO is united, despite Trump’s past criticism, and determined to expand and upgrade its defences to deter any attack from Moscow.
Trump made the comments to reporters on board Air Force One on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, a White House official said Trump was scheduled to meet Zelenskyy at some point during the NATO summit, taking place on Tuesday and Wednesday in The Hague.
Trump pulled out from a hoped-for meeting with Zelenskyy last week, when the U.S. president left the G7 meeting in Canada early, saying he needed to focus on the crisis in the Middle East.
Zelenskyy’s Priorities
In comments released by his office on Saturday, Zelenskyy outlined his three priorities if a meeting with Trump were to take place at the NATO summit.
Firstly, he said he wanted to discuss weapons, saying that during the G7 summit, his aides had given U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent a wish-list of arms, including Patriot missile defence systems, which he described as worth “a very large amount”.
“Russia is even planning new military operations on NATO territory – meaning your countries,” Zelenskyy told a defence industry event on the sidelines of the summit, hours after Russian missiles killed at least 11 people in southeast Ukraine.
“No doubt we must stop Putin now, and in Ukraine, but we have to understand that his objectives reach beyond Ukraine. European countries need to increase defence spending.”
Zelenskyy said Ukraine was “ready to find the money for this whole package” rather than requesting it as military aid.
Secondly, he wanted to talk about sanctions on Russia, and thirdly about other diplomatic ways of applying greater pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
(With inputs from Reuters)
