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Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been at the NATO summit, seeking guarantees of further Western support. We will be back with rolling updates soon – but in the meantime, check below for a recap of the key Ukraine developments at the summit.
Wednesday 25 June 2025 17:08, UK
The NATO summit at The Hague is now over and while Ukraine wasn’t the main item on the agenda, the ongoing war with Russia was still discussed.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a series of bilateral talks with foreign leaders, including a meeting with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the summit.
The Ukrainian president said he discussed how to achieve a ceasefire and real peace with Trump, adding the meeting was “substantive” and the pair discussed how to “protect our people”.
He also said the two leaders discussed the possible co-production of drones and that he told Trump “the facts of what is happening on the ground”.
Speaking this afternoon, Trump admitted he and Zelenskyy had previously had some “rough times” but that his Ukrainian counterpart “couldn’t have been nicer” today.
He said he will now speak with Vladimir Putin about the war and “see if we can get it ended”, adding that the Russian leader would “like to get out of this thing” and that the war has “been a mess for him”.
Answering a question about whether Putin has any territorial ambitions beyond Ukraine, Trump said “it’s possible”.
He also said he thinks the Russian president has “been misguided” and adds: “I’m very surprised, actually. I thought we should have settled that easily.”
US considering extra Patriots for Ukraine
At one moment during his remarks, Trump was asked a question about the Patriot missile systems by a woman who revealed her husband was serving in the Ukrainian army.
“That’s a very good question,” Trump said. “And I wish you a lot of luck. I mean, I can see it’s very upsetting to you. So say hello to your husband.”
On the question itself, Trump said he is considering sending more Patriot missile batteries to Ukraine to help Kyiv fend off Russian attacks.
He said the air-defence missiles are “very hard to get” but that “we are going to see if we can make some of them available.”
In other Ukraine news…
We’ll be pausing our coverage for now but we’ll be back soon with any updates – particularly if there are big developments related to Ukraine at today’s NATO summit.
Here are the key lines you need to know:
You can follow more from the NATO summit at The Hague in our separate live page – just click below:
We’ve just seen Donald Trump speaking at the NATO summit next to the alliance’s chief, Mark Rutte – who was very flattering to the US president throughout the news conference.
If you’ve been following Trump’s Truth Social account, Rutte’s flattery won’t be surprising.
Ahead of the NATO summit today, Trump posted a private message from NATO’s secretary general online – in which Rutte praised the US president and congratulated him on “decisive action in Iran” after he struck three nuclear sites.
“You will achieve something NO American president in decades could get done,” Mark Rutte told Trump in the flattering text.
“Europe is going to pay in a BIG way as they should, and it will be your win.”
Rutte also told Trump he was “flying into another big success in The Hague”, noting other countries had signed up to the new pledge for NATO members to spend 5% of their GDP on defence and security after the US president called for them to do so.
You can read the full message, which Trump shared on Truth Social yesterday, here:
On the Trump 100 podcast our US correspondents James Matthews and Mark Stone disagreed on whether Rutte knew the gushing letter would be made public.
Matthews suggested the former Dutch prime minister would not have expected the letter to be leaked, while Stone said any experienced politician knows Trump was likely to leak it.
You can listen here:
There has been much discussion of Article 5 of the NATO treaty today, after Donald Trump yesterday refused to confirm explicitly that the US remains committed to it.
Today, Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said he believes the US is fully behind its obligation towards NATO and the Article 5 clause on mutual defence.
But we are still waiting to hear from the US on this.
So what is Article 5?
In short, this is the founding idea of collective defence.
When it was signed in 1949, the aim of the North Atlantic Treaty – on which NATO was founded – was to create a pact of mutual assistance.
At the time (and ever relevant today), this was to counter the risk that the Soviet Union would seek to extend its control of Eastern Europe throughout the continent.
Article 5 states that members of the alliance “agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all”.
Therefore, members agree that “if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith”.
Essentially, an attack against one NATO ally is an attack against all – and it could warrant a wider response by the alliance at large.
With that in mind, Trump’s vague answer on a commitment to the article could have significant consequences if the US decides not to abide by it.
NATO leaders are currently gathering on stage for group photos at The Hague.
Leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Polish President Andrzej Duda, are taking photos with NATO chief Mark Rutte.
Now, Donald Trump is asked about his approaching meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy today.
The US president calls the Ukrainian leader a “nice guy” and when asked what he will discuss with him, jokingly replies: “I assume we are going to be discussing Ukraine – it seems like the most likely.”
“I’ve spoken to Vladimir Putin and he was very nice. He volunteered help with Iran,” he adds.
“I said I don’t need help with Iran – I need help on Russia.
“I said do me a favour and help us on Russia not Iran. But he was very nice.”
When it came to the war between Ukraine and Russia, he adds: “I think progress is being made.”
The line of questioning for Donald Trump remains on Iran and he is asked how long he thinks the Iranian nuclear programme has been put back by the strikes.
“I think decades. I don’t think they will ever do it again,” he replies.
“I think they will have some missiles and defence.
“I think they have had it. They just went through hell. The last thing they want to do in enrich.
“When you look at a site like that, it is very hard to rebuild.”
He goes on to say “that hit ended the war”.
Questioned on the US intelligence reports suggesting the strikes did not destroy Iran’s nuclear sites, Trump says “they don’t know”.
“I believe it was total obliteration, I believe they didn’t have a chance to get anything out because we acted fast,” he says.
“It’s hard to remove that kind of material – very hard and very dangerous.”
He says “everything was burned black”.
US secretary defence Pete Hegseth says there is a leak investigation ongoing with the FBI now.
He says the damage was “moderate to severe, but he believes “more likely severe and obliterated”.
Donald Trump is answering questions with NATO chief Mark Rutte at The Hague.
He says NATO is “going to become very strong” after members increase defence spending to 5% of GDP – a big jump from the current 2%.
Rutte thanks the president and says “this would not have happened if you were not elected in 2016 and then re-elected”.
“It’s a great victory for everybody,” Trump says.
Asked how the ceasefire between Iran and Israel is going, Trump says: “I think very good.”
He goes on to say it was an “equal agreement” between the countries.
“We had a tremendous victory, a tremendous hit,” he adds.
Polish President Andrzej Duda has said while he does not think Russia will attack NATO countries now there is still a real risk to Europe.
Asked by our security and defence editor Deborah Haynes if there was risk Vladimir Putin could attack the alliance, Duda said: “I think that Russia is exhausted because of their aggression against Ukraine.
“I don’t expect that Russia is ready to attack other countries now.
“But in the future this is a real risk so we have to prepare ourselves and increase out spending on defence because it is absolutely necessary to our defence.”
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