Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy landed in Ankara Tuesday to attend the two-day summit of NATO, where the Russia-Ukraine war will be a high-priority item on the agenda.
The Ukrainian leader renewed calls for additional Western military assistance, particularly air defense systems capable of intercepting ballistic missiles, saying Ukraine urgently needs more interceptor missiles, after the conflict escalated in recent weeks.
"We very much expect that the summit now in Ankara – the summit of the strongest Euro-Atlantic states – will not become a hollow exercise. And that our protection of life, our security cooperation, and defense capabilities here in Europe and with America will become stronger through joint work and joint decisions," Zelenskyy said in a televised address Monday. "Decisions are needed," Zelenskyy added.
He urged the U.S. and European countries to emerge from the 2026 NATO summit with "strong decisions" in support of Ukraine's air defenses and the protection of civilians.
Earlier Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump said that a resolution to the more than four-year-old war in Ukraine is "getting closer than people realize" and that he will talk about Ukraine during talks in Türkiye.
Trump made his remarks after speaking over the weekend with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Zelenskyy.
He gave no specific reason for his assertion that a solution to the conflict was in sight and overnight Russia hammered Kyiv and the surrounding region with missiles and drones, killing at least 28 people.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he believed the U.S. position on how to resolve the conflict remained unchanged.
But Zelenskyy, interviewed by the Financial Times, said he believed the U.S. president was viewing the conflict in a new light in view of recent Ukrainian successes.
"This is one that I think we're getting much closer than people realize. And President Putin wants it to end. I will tell you that very strongly," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Trump said he had held a "good call" with Putin on the Fourth of July holiday, a conversation a Kremlin aide said lasted 85 minutes and was marked by the U.S. president offering to help find a way to move towards peace.
"And President Zelenskiy actually wants it to end now. And we're going to be going to NATO, and we're going to be talking about it, and I think we're going to get it," he said. "I think we're going to get it ended. It's been a terrible situation."
Trump is scheduled to meet Zelenskyy on Wednesday on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara and a U.S. official said the idea of the talks was to make a renewed push to end the war.
The same official said Trump would likely follow up with Putin after talking to Zelenskyy.
