Ukraine president urges leaders to increase defence spending more rapidly as Nato summit braces for Donald Trump to attend
There are more quotes from Ukraine’s Zelenskyy in his interview with Sky News’s Mark Austin.
On plans to meet Trump on the sidelines of the Nato summit:
I am planning [to]. I don’t know what will happen, the teams are working on this, but there are plans to meet.
It’s a complicated question because I truly don’t know what relationship Trump has with Putin. … I am confident that president Trump understands that Ukrainians are allies to America, and the real existential enemy of America is Russia. They will never be friends. They may be short term partners, but they will never be friends.
I believe it is an advantageous proposal for Nato today to have an ally like Ukraine, with Nato weapons, with new technology. … We have no secrets, and experienced people with 10 years of different types of fighting. … It isn’t just the battlefield, it’s the economy, … it’s cyber-attacks, it’s the banking system, it’s the energy sector… Nato doesn’t have this experience.
I’m not saying we would be in Nato, but if somebody says, Ukraine needs Nato, I believe that this is a mutual opportunity. Nato needs Ukrainians, too.
A ceasefire is nobody’s victory and nobody’s defeat. It’s a compromise on both ends. Both sides in this war had absolutely different goals. The Russians intended to occupy us, and they are open about that. Ukrainians intended to stop that, and this is a war for independence.
No, I don’t think so. This isn’t a simple situation for us, but it is not as difficult as in the first days of the invasion.
“Yes, the destruction of their capabilities, their capability to kill people, yes. I believe this is a powerful and correct move.”
“It is a big problem, the political focus is changing, and this means the aid from partners, above all from the US, may be reduce and we don’t want that.”
“Putin will lose politically in any event, because he’s shown [what] an ally of Iran [he is]. He will lose because he won’t be able to give Iran anything, because he is not as powerful as the legend has.”
“Guess what? The new Supreme Allied Commander has been announced, and last time I checked his passport, it was the US, so that didn’t happen.
So my message to my European colleagues is: stop worrying so much. Start to make sure that you get investment plans done, that you get industrial base up and running, that the support for Ukraine remains at a high level.
