Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Tuesday for the two-day NATO summit, the charismatic leader serving as the star attraction as he lobbies for weaponry and membership in the world’s most powerful military alliance.
Zelenskyy, who will meet Wednesday with President Joe Biden, had threatened to skip the meeting at which the fortunes of his war-battered nation are taking center stage. Zelenskyy has been pressing NATO for an invitation to join and a timeline for accession in an effort to eliminate membership as a bargaining chip at the negotiating table in any future peace talks with Russia.
A tenuous NATO offer lacking specifics would provide Russia with “motivation to continue its terror,” he said. But the NATO communique issued Tuesday provided few details and no solid timeline, stating “we will be in position to extend and invitation to Ukraine to join the alliance when allies agree and conditions are met.”
“Ukraine will be represented at the NATO summit in Vilnius because it is about respect,” Zelenskyy said in a statement Tuesday. “But Ukraine also deserves respect.”
Developments:
∎Ukraine’s battlefield technology system is ready to integrate F-16 fighter jets, Ukraine Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said Tuesday. Ukraine pilots are training to fly the jets, and deliveries of the planes could begin in September.
∎Germany’s planned $770 million military aid package for Ukraine will include missile launchers, tanks, and 20,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, the German media outlet Deutsche Welle reported.
Blinken: Ukraine would be defenseless without cluster munitions
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that Ukraine would be “defenseless” without the controversial cluster munitions the U.S. has agreed to supply over the objections of some allies. Blinken, in an interview on MSNBC, reiterated the White House explanation that stockpiles of other munitions were running low in the West and that cluster munitions would fill the gap. Neither the U.S., Ukraine, or Russia are among nations that have banned cluster munitions due to the risks they pose to civilians.
“The hard but necessary choice to give them the cluster munitions amounted to this: If we didn’t do it, we don’t do it, then they will run out of ammunition,” Blinken said. “If they run out of ammunition, then they will be defenseless.”
Kremlin will take ‘necessary measures’ as Sweden joins NATO
Moscow is prepared to take unspecified measures to ensure its security “depending on how quickly and extensively” NATO taps into new territory in Sweden and Finland, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday. Finland has formally joined the alliance, and a deal has been struck with NATO holdout Turkey to allow Sweden’s accession. Finland shares a border of more than 800 miles with Russia; Sweden and Russia share a maritime border.
“Helsinki and Stockholm are already discussing a variety of issues with the United States that relate to the deployment of the alliance’s infrastructure right on the Russian border,” Lavrov said. “The necessary measures (will be taken), we know what these measures should be and how to put them into practice.”
