Following the NATO summit held in The Hague, Netherlands, Ukraine, the USA, and the alliance members have presented their conclusions. According to the official statement released by the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kyiv has welcomed the intention of the allied countries to increase their military expenditures to up to 5 percent annually with pleasure. A portion of these funds is expected to be allocated specifically as assistance to Ukraine.
Nevertheless, during the two-day summit, neither the head of the Ukrainian MFA, Andriy Sibiga, nor President Volodymyr Zelensky allocated time to interact with journalists.
On the other hand, US President Donald Trump devoted nearly an hour to openly answering questions at the press conference. However, when it came to the topic of Ukraine, he limited his responses to the questions about the war, which he referred to as the “Ukraine crisis”, with superficial answers or avoided them altogether.
When talking about his meeting with Zelensky, Trump said:
“He was very pleasant, honestly. Sometimes it has been difficult to work with him. But this time he was exceptionally courteous. What I understood from the meeting is that he very much wants this conflict to end”.
Trump also promised to “talk about this with Putin”.
In the statement announced at the end of the summit, Russia was recognized as a long-term threat to Euro-Atlantic security. The loyalty of NATO to “Article 5” was reaffirmed once again: according to it, an attack on one of the alliance members is considered as an attack on the whole alliance.
According to Reuters, the NATO countries have crossed the threshold of 1 trillion dollars in military expenditures by themselves in the year 2024. This indicator demonstrates the alliance's resolve to enhance its military power and to rein in the threat coming from Russia.
