Zelenskyy Urges NATO to Admit Ukraine
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- Zelenskyy told NATO's defence industry forum in Ankara that Ukraine's wartime-built defences are too valuable to exclude, asking allies: "Do you really believe it would be right to leave outside Nato, a country and a people with this level of defensive capability?"
- Zelenskyy said Ukraine has developed "almost all" the weapons it needs and now only requires European help building an alternative to US Patriots, after 23 Russian ballistic missiles struck Kyiv on Monday with zero intercepted, killing at least 15.
- The Patriot gap stems from the US burning through 1,060-1,430 interceptors during the Iran war, and Lockheed Martin produces roughly 600 PAC-3 missiles per year, each taking two years to manufacture.
- A senior NATO official said Russia launched about 8,300 munitions at Ukraine in May (8,150 drones, 211 missiles) while sustaining 30,000-35,000 casualties monthly, with Russian forces advancing just 3.79 sq km a day in June — a quarter of the year-ago rate.
- Ukraine has knocked out roughly 20% of Russia's oil-refining capacity, struck a refinery in Omsk, Siberia (1,680 miles from its border), and raised its Shahed drone interception rate above 90%, Zelenskyy said.
- NATO members announced more than $50bn in arms deals at the Ankara forum, backed by last year's agreement to lift defence spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035 under pressure from Trump.
- Trump said separately over the weekend that he thinks both Zelenskyy and Putin "want to make a deal" and is due to meet Zelenskyy for a bilateral on Wednesday in Ankara.
Why it matters: Zelenskyy's NATO pitch is inseparable from Europe's missile gap: the US burned through 1,060-1,430 Patriot interceptors in the Iran war, Lockheed Martin builds only ~600 PAC-3s per year on a two-year production cycle, and Russia just demonstrated it can hit Kyiv with 23 ballistic missiles that went entirely unchallenged. Europe cannot backfill that gap with American kit — meaning Zelenskyy's call for indigenous European anti-ballistic capacity is the actual security ask, while NATO membership remains a distant aspiration blocked by the US and others wary of war with a nuclear power.
