Brussels - Kyiv: Europe and the Arabs
NATO Headquarters in Brussels published the text of the speech delivered by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at a joint press conference with the Ukrainian President on Friday. He said, "Three and a half years after Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine is still resilient. Your NATO friends and partners continue to stand by you. Our support is steady and increasing, including through the new Priority Ukrainian Requirements List (PURL) that supports a vital flow of lethal US weapons to Ukraine through funding provided by NATO Allies. In less than a month, this has already resulted in an additional $1.5 billion in critical equipment, air defense, ammunition, and more. More packages will follow. Allies are supporting your defense industry—investing in ways that not only enhance your security but also support your economy. I have witnessed the innovation Ukraine is bringing to bear in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles. Allies can learn a lot from Ukraine. I also listened carefully to what you said about the need for more investment here.
We work together in NSATU, NATO Command in Germany—to ensure your fighting forces have what they need today and in the future. We work together at our Joint Analysis, Training, and Education Center in Poland, through the NATO Office here in Kyiv, and through the NATO-Ukraine Council. The list goes on.
We are together because we share common values—freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. We are together because we share a common goal of preserving Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence. Our security is interdependent.
Dear Vladimir, Your country has been staunchly defending freedom for three and a half years. Your people have witnessed horrific horrors and endured sleepless nights as Russia continued to bomb homes, hospitals, industries, and infrastructure. Ukrainian soldiers are fighting bravely. They have repelled and repelled the Russian invasion. We support you and we salute you. And we stand with you in the pursuit of a just and lasting peace.
In fact, we were together in Washington on Monday—alongside the US President and many European leaders—to seize the opportunity to end this horrific war and bring peace and security after so much suffering.
President Trump has made this a priority—not just to break the deadlock with Putin, but To make it clear that the United States will participate in providing security guarantees to Ukraine.
Strong security guarantees will be essential—and that is what we are now working to define. So, when it comes time for you to enter that bilateral meeting, you will find behind you the clear strength of Ukraine's friends. We guarantee that Russia will abide by any agreement and will never, ever attempt to seize a single square kilometer of Ukraine.
Dear President Vladimir, I commend your personal courage and leadership, as well as the steadfastness of the Ukrainian people.
As you prepare to celebrate this great country's Independence Day, know that NATO still stands with Ukraine.
In his answers to journalists' questions, the NATO Secretary General said: Let us first agree on the importance of cooperation between Ukraine, the United States, and Europe, and when we talk about security guarantees, let us also agree that there are two levels. The first level will be after a peace agreement, or a long-term ceasefire, or a combination of the two. The first level must be the Ukrainian Armed Forces as strong as possible to defend this country and this great nation into the future. The second level is the security guarantees provided by Europe and the United States. And this is what we are working on. As we all know, the Budapest Memorandum and the Minsk Agreement did not provide those security guarantees. So, we clearly know what should not be. And we are now working together—Ukraine, the Europeans, and the United States—to ensure that the security guarantees are at a level that ensures that Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, sitting in Moscow, will not attempt to attack Ukraine again.
In response to another question, the NATO Secretary General said:
As President Zelenskyy mentioned, these discussions are now underway at many levels. So, the security advisors and foreign ministers are working together on this. Ukraine is very involved through Andriy, the security advisor and foreign minister, as are the European countries and the United States. So, we are already working together on this. It is too early to determine the exact outcome, but it is clear that the United States will be involved. We clearly do not want a repeat of the Budapest Memorandum or the Minsk Agreement. These security guarantees must remain in place. And, as I mentioned, as a second step in addition to the post-war buildup of the Ukrainian armed forces, NATO will be very involved there. We are already, of course, very involved through our commands in Wiesbaden, which are helping Ukraine continue the fight now, but Also, on developing its armed forces as a proud, sovereign state after the peace agreement. So, NATO is proudly participating in all of this.
Ruta answered another question, saying, "We are coordinating this closely with our Polish colleagues. I won't go into details, but we are in close contact with Poland on this matter. Poland responded strongly to this latest incident, and it responded correctly. So, rest assured, we are fully aware of this."
The NATO Secretary General answered another question, saying, "Obviously, Ukraine and NATO—the United States, Europe, Ukraine, and NATO—are all working together very well. As I mentioned, we have, in conjunction with Ukraine, an organization in Poland to draw all the lessons from this horrific war, to understand its implications for all future NATO plans, for Ukraine itself, for the future buildup of their forces, and what lessons we can learn. We have a command in Wiesbaden, from which, in cooperation with Ukraine, we organize all the support for Ukraine in this world, from NATO allies." We are strongly committed to ensuring that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are, in the long term, as interoperable as possible, and to the highest NATO standards. We have a comprehensive assistance package. We have this new initiative, thanks to President Trump, to purchase lethal military weapons from American stockpiles, from the United States, and of course, air defense systems and interceptor missiles, paid for by the Europeans and delivered directly to Ukraine. So NATO is involved in all of this.
We agreed in Washington that Ukraine's accession to NATO is irreversible. It's true that some NATO allies, including the United States, as well as Hungary and other countries, have said: Not now, and maybe never, that's for the future.
But what we're doing in the meantime is making sure that we work together as closely as possible. We are doing that, and regarding last Monday's meeting, I think it was very important that the European countries, Ukraine, and of course the US President were present. I would like to commend his leadership, his success in breaking the deadlock with Putin, and his remarkable success in The Hague by committing to a 5% defense spending target, followed by secondary sanctions on India, which enabled the implementation of this initiative to supply US weapons to Ukraine, and his daily work to bring peace to this region and end this horrific war. But the presence was not limited to the Europeans and the US President, but also included the European countries, the European Union, and NATO.