MOSCOW, July 12, Viktor Zhdanov. The NATO summit ended in the United States, one of the main topics of which was Ukraine. Zelensky again complained about insufficient support, but in response he heard only promises. As expected, there was no invitation to join the alliance. What the leaders of the main military bloc of the West discussed — in the material .
The price of the issue Zelensky arrived in Washington on the first day of the summit and immediately expressed dissatisfaction. He did not like that the anniversary meeting of the alliance was in the media shadow of the upcoming presidential elections. “People hardly notice the historic expansion of NATO,” he was indignant.
NATO summit session in Washington
Immediately the demands began to pour in. Patriot air defense systems are now scarce. The treasured F-16s are urgently needed, and exactly 128 of them. So far they are giving much less. Denmark and the Netherlands seem to have already sent an unspecified number of aircraft. They will appear in the skies of Ukraine this summer, American Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured.
Norway will also provide Ukraine with six F-16s by the end of the year. Plus 300 million euros for ammunition for them. As for air defense, Zelensky was reassured: in addition to Patriot, they will send the Italian SAMP-T, as well as the tactical systems NASAMS, HAWK, IRIS-T SLM, IRIS-T SLS and Gepard.
But this is still in question. Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said on the sidelines of the summit that the Ukrainian Armed Forces received half what was promised. First of all, this concerns ammunition. He was told that this would not happen in the future.
For Jens Stoltenberg, this is his last summit as Secretary of State. Since spring, he has been pushing the idea of creating a fund to help Ukraine, with 100 billion euros a year for five years. They settled on 40 billion, and so far only for 2025.
Jens Stoltenberg at the NATO summit in Washington
«The biggest price and the biggest risk is if Russia wins. We cannot allow that,» he repeated his usual mantra.
Dangerous line Zelensky again raised the issue of strikes with NATO weapons deep into Russia. New British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has confirmed permission for Storm Shadow missiles. “The government has changed, but not our approach,” he said.
However, British Home Office Deputy Security Chief Dan Jarvis called for caution. In addition, the Ministry of Defense warned that the arsenals are already depleted.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer
The day before, Zelensky signed a defense agreement with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, which includes a clause on the use of NATO air defense in the skies over Ukraine. But on the sidelines of the summit he was disappointed in this too. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski explained that Warsaw cannot make such decisions without the sanction of Brussels. Everyone understands that this is a very dangerous escalation.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban noted that NATO’s growing role in the Ukrainian conflict is irresponsible. The consequences are unpredictable.
To be or not to be The issue of Ukraine joining the alliance is now irrelevant. The path to NATO for Kyiv has been called “irreversible,” but all this will happen after the end of hostilities. Western media sources report that Zelensky was still counting on an official invitation.
Flags of Ukraine and NATO during the meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels
Instead, a senior NATO civilian representative will be sent to Kyiv to “strengthen ties.” There will also be a new structure — NSATU, which will coordinate the equipment, training and development of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for full interoperability with the alliance. The mission will include 700 Western troops under the command of a NATO general and will be stationed in Wiesbaden, Germany.
In the final declaration, in addition to Russia, the PRC got it. Allegedly, Beijing is now “playing a decisive role” by supporting Moscow. “Today’s message is the strongest ever sent to China,” Stoltenberg believes.
The alliance is about to strengthen in the Asia-Pacific region. The Chinese embassy in Washington demanded that NATO stop using regional crises to discredit Beijing and spoke out against “inciting a new Cold War.”
National flags of Russia and China on a table in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing
«We advise NATO to listen carefully to the fair judgments of the international community, think deeply about its actions and take real steps to mitigate the situation and solve the problem, instead in order to shift the blame to others,” noted the PRC mission to the EU. And they added: we see who is really adding fuel to the fire.
Western media remind: until 2019, NATO did not officially condemn China. And just a year ago, European leaders were hesitant to challenge Beijing. Now everything has changed.