Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that he had discussed a ceasefire in Ukraine with his US counterpart Donald Trump in The Hague. However, Trump denied at a press conference after the NATO summit that he and Zelensky discussed a ceasefire. He said he only wanted to see how the Ukrainian president was doing. However, both said the meeting was 'good.'

19:49 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that at a meeting with US President Donald Trump they discussed the purchase of American air defense systems to protect Ukrainian cities, people, churches and infrastructure. The meeting of these presidents took place on the sidelines of the NATO summit in The Hague, TASR writes, according to a report by the AFP agency.

Zelenskyy reported on the X network that he and Trump discussed protecting people and purchasing American defense systems."Ukraine is ready to buy this equipment and support American weapons manufacturers. Europe can help. We also talked about the possible joint production of drones. We can strengthen each other," Zelenskyy wrote on social media.

Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine, sending hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles almost daily, according to AFP, with these attacks causing civilian casualties, destroying homes and infrastructure. A Russian missile and drone attack in the Dnipropetrovsk region on Tuesday killed 21 people and injured more than 300 others.

18:42 Russian President Vladimir Putin will not travel to Brazil for the BRICS summit next month, his adviser Yuri Ushakov announced on Wednesday. The reason is the arrest warrant issued for Putin by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague in March 2023, TASR writes, citing an AFP report.

18:20 “Russia is trading long-term economic health for short-term military spending,” a NATO official warned. He added that the country’s economic growth has fallen from 4% in 2024 to around 1% in 2025. At the same time, Russian officials are starting to talk openly about the risk of recession.

18:00 US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky agreed today that their meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit in The Hague was very good. However, Trump denied that they talked about how to achieve a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, which Zelensky said after the meeting. The White House chief told reporters that he intends to talk to Russian leader Vladimir Putin about options for ending the war.

"We discussed all the really important topics," Zelensky said on the X network after a roughly fifty-minute meeting. According to AFP, his intention was mainly to talk to Trump about the possible expansion of sanctions against Russia and further arms supplies to Kiev.

Unique footage from the special operation Spider Web

The Ukrainian Secret Service has released unique footage from the special operation"Spiderweb", during which several military aircraft of the Russian Strategic Aviation were hit. Source: Ukrainian Secret Service SBU

Trump said his first meeting with Zelensky since late April"couldn't have gone better." Ukraine has been fighting Russian aggression since February 2022, and Trump has been trying to end the war since taking office in January. While Zelensky has previously agreed to an unconditional ceasefire, Putin is setting a number of conditions and, according to many analysts, is not seeking a quick end to the war.

"I think it's a great time to end it. I'm going to talk to Vladimir Putin to see if we can end it," Trump said after meeting with the Ukrainian president today.

He also said the United States would see if it could provide Ukraine with additional Patriot air defense systems, which is what Kiev is seeking.

Kiev faces one of its worst attacks

At least 14 people were killed and 44 others injured in Russian missile and drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital Kiev overnight Tuesday, officials there said on the morning of June 17, 2025./Source: Volodymyr Zelensky's Twitter

17:47 Polish President Andrzej Duda said that all leaders at the summit in The Hague clearly declared the need for further support for the attacked Ukraine. He stressed that Russia must not win this war and that he sees Ukraine's future in the transatlantic community."I said very clearly that Russia cannot win this war, that the future of Ukraine - I deeply believe in this - is a transatlantic future," he added. He also expressed confidence that newly elected President Karol Nawrocki will continue his policy towards Ukraine.

16:45 The meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was very good, but there was no talk of a ceasefire with Russia, US President Donald Trump said after talks on the sidelines of the NATO summit. He added that he intends to speak with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to discuss options for ending the war in Ukraine. Russia began the war with an invasion in February 2022. Zelensky said shortly before Trump's statement that he and the White House chief of staff had discussed the possibilities of achieving a ceasefire and lasting peace.

The White House chief said he just wanted to see how the Ukrainian president was doing. Trump acknowledged that there had been some complications in U.S.-Ukraine relations, but said Zelensky “couldn’t have been nicer” during the meeting. He noted that thousands of people had died on both sides of the conflict and that he understood from his meeting with the Ukrainian president that Zelensky wanted an end to the war with Russia. He added that he would also speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin to “see if we can end it.”

15:50 A joint declaration, which talks about increasing defense spending to five percent of GDP by 2035, was unanimously adopted today at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in The Hague by all 32 member states, including Slovakia. A total of 3.5 percent of this will go to armaments and the remaining 1.5 percent to strengthening infrastructure. As President Peter Pellegrini informed at a press conference, the joint conclusions were adopted without any reservations or comments from any member state.

15:25 The Presidents of Ukraine and the United States, Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump, met on the sidelines of the NATO summit, which is taking place today in the Netherlands. The UNIAN agency reports.

Zelensky spoke with his American counterpart Trump today about the possibilities of achieving a ceasefire in Ukraine and a lasting peace with Russia. Zelensky made the statement after a roughly fifty-minute meeting held on the sidelines of the NATO summit. He described the first meeting with the White House chief of staff since late April as satisfactory, news agencies report.

This is the first meeting between the leaders in two months. Zelenskyy last met with Trump at the Vatican in April of this year. They came together there for the funeral of Pope Francis.

Their meeting at the G7 summit in early June ultimately did not take place due to Trump's early departure in connection with the situation in the Middle East.

15:10 According to a senior NATO official, Russia has already surpassed one million total casualties in the war against Ukraine, of which approximately 250,000 were killed. The website united24media.com reports on this.

"The pace of Russian casualties remains very high," the official said on the sidelines of a NATO summit, noting that Moscow has in recent months shifted to tactics of smaller, more mobile assault groups using motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles, a shift that has been a result of heavy losses and a shortage of Soviet tanks.

Russia suffered an average of nearly 1,300 casualties per day in the first half of 2025. Although the pace has slowed slightly, NATO assesses that Russia is willing to endure these losses in the interest of slow and gradual gains. “We believe that they will continue this strategy, and that this may further increase their willingness to take risks,” the alliance official warned.

Despite mounting losses, NATO sees no signs that Russia is changing its war aims or seriously interested in a ceasefire. The alliance says Moscow is capable of waging war in Ukraine until at least 2027, despite a slowing economy and dwindling reserve funds.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported on Russian losses exceeding the million mark on June 12. Paradoxically, this happened during the Russian national holiday - Russia Day.

14:48 The Czech Republic will contribute almost 50,000 euros to the register of damages caused by Russian aggression in Ukraine this year. This follows from materials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which are available to ČTK and which were approved by the government today. The Czech Republic is one of the founding states of the register of damages.

The Damage Register was established in May of last year on the occasion of the Council of Europe summit in Reykjavík. It is a body whose participants are not only members of the organization, but also observer states - the United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico - and non-member countries. Its task is to record damage caused in connection with the Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Ukraine performs surgical strikes: The latest Russian radar was shot down. Drones could not withstand even the Grad system

Devastating attacks by Ukrainian drones. They scattered the Russian BM-21 Grad missile system. They also destroyed the Russian radar system"Jastreb-AV". It is considered the most modern Russian radar complex used to locate artillery firing positions. Its estimated cost is about 250 million dollars./Source: Ukrainian Ministry of Defense

13:36 The Czech Republic is ready to increase defense spending to five percent of gross domestic product (GDP), Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) told reporters today after a government meeting. He expects the increase to be adopted today at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in The Hague. The mandate of the Czech delegation approved by the government was that it could agree to the increase, Fiala said. Negotiations between the presidents and prime ministers of NATO member states began in the Netherlands this morning.

13:31 The European Union is turning into a military pact aimed at Russia, and therefore Ukraine's entry into the union would pose a direct danger to Russia, former Russian President and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who is currently the deputy chairman of the Security Council, an advisory body to President Vladimir Putin, said today. Medvedev's statement was quoted by Russian and foreign media. Ukraine, with the help of the West, has been defending itself against Russian armed aggression for four years in the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II.

"15-20 years ago, no one in our country (in Russia) had any special objections to Kiev's plans to join the European Union," Medvedev wrote on the social network. At the time, he said, it did not seem that such economic cooperation could threaten Russia in any way,"especially when Ukraine's chances of joining the EU were almost zero." The key, he said, was to prevent Ukraine from joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, whose expansion to the Russian borders"was and remains a direct threat to Russia's national security," he added.

"But the former European Union, which was once founded on the basis of the European Coal and Steel Community, does not exist in essence. It is a politicized globalist organization that has been fiercely hating Russia for some time. An organization that dreams of revenge against Russia," Medvedev thinks. According to him, European politicians have completely destroyed the idea of the EU as an economic giant that does not want wars and conflicts. But that was supposedly at a time when the trade turnover of EU countries with Russia reached almost 500 billion euros.

In the current EU, according to the Russian representative, the main ideology is"bestial Russophobia, created by an imaginary 'Russian threat', inflated in order to solve petty problems". The EU is thus said to be slowly but surely turning into a self-sufficient military pact and a competitor to NATO. The"ugly metamorphosis of the EU" also aims to arm "the Kiev regime to make it invulnerable".

European Union countries, many of which are also NATO members, have been strengthening their defense capabilities since Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine.

However, the EU launched the first sanctions after Moscow annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014, in violation of international law, and supported pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

"Brussels is today Russia's real enemy," Medvedev claims, calling for a change in Moscow's approach in a situation where the EU is becoming a"direct threat." and therefore "the so-called Ukraine in the EU is a danger to our country." According to him, there are only two possible solutions: either the EU realizes that it"does not need the Kiev pseudo-state," or "there will simply be no one to join the EU, and that would certainly be even better."

13:21 Russian aggression in Ukraine, the dramatic situation in the Middle East, European defense and security, EU competitiveness and migration will be the main topics of the European Union summit, which begins on Thursday in Brussels. In addition to the official conclusions, which will probably be negotiated in advance, everyone is focusing mainly on what will happen behind closed doors. It is expected that the EU presidents and prime ministers could agree on the 18th set of sanctions against Russia and also on extending the anti-Russian sanctions for another six months. So far, these two steps have been blocked by Hungary and Slovakia.

European Council President António Costa hopes the summit can be a one-day affair, but if the discussions drag on, the leaders will meet again on Friday.

Ukraine has launched a 'Frankenstein'. They created a new hybrid weapon from an American Humvee and Soviet missiles

Ukrainians have a new weapon at their disposal to shoot down drones and combat aircraft. The Ukrainian 3rd Assault Brigade reported on social networks that it had combined an American Humvee with Soviet R-73 missiles./Source: Facebook / 3rd Separate Assault Brigade

The meeting is expected to discuss effective returns of migrants and other innovative solutions to illegal migration in a narrow circle of EU states. The participants of the meeting, which according to ČTK sources should number about 12, are also expected to call for the rapid approval of recently published proposals related to migration and asylum. These include the return regulation, the directive on safe countries of origin and safe third countries.

"The European Council strongly condemns Russia's continued bombing of the civilian population and civilian infrastructure and calls for a complete, unconditional and immediate ceasefire," reads the draft conclusions of the upcoming summit, which are available to ČTK."The European Council calls on Russia to show genuine political will to end its aggressive war, to agree to a ceasefire and to engage in meaningful negotiations," the document adds, adding that the European Union is ready to increase pressure on Russia if necessary, including through a new robust package of sanctions.

According to ČTK sources, it is not yet clear whether Hungary and Slovakia will join the part of the conclusions on Ukraine. It may therefore only be a consensus of 26 or 25 states. Bratislava and Budapest also have reservations about the proposed sanctions against Russia. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has previously stated that his country will block the adoption of the 18th sanctions package if the Union does not resolve the issue of the proposed end to imports of Russian energy in advance. In this regard, Fico criticized the European Commission's plan to gradually stop all imports of Russian gas by the end of 2027. This is part of the REPowerEU project with the aim of reducing the European bloc's dependence on energy from Russia.

12:22 Ukraine reports more than 50 drones destroyed. The Defense Ministry in Moscow announced today that Russian troops have captured the village of Yalta in Ukraine's Donetsk region. The village is located southwest of the city of Pokrovsk, the surroundings of which have been the scene of fierce fighting for several months.

11:55 US President Donald Trump, on his way to the NATO summit in The Hague, introduced some uncertainty into the question of whether the United States will honor its commitment to mutual defense. The AP agency wrote this, according to which the White House chief's comments could revive long-standing concerns among European allies about Washington's commitments to the North Atlantic Alliance.

11:35 US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Politico on Wednesday that the United States does not plan to impose further sanctions against Russia, as it wants to preserve space for possible peace negotiations, TASR reports.

"If we did what everyone here wants us to do, which is to intervene and destroy them with more sanctions, we would probably lose the ability to negotiate a ceasefire with them, and then who would talk to them?" Rubio said on the sidelines of the NATO summit in The Hague.

He added that President Donald Trump would"know the right time and place" for new economic measures against Russia, and that the administration was working with Congress to provide Trump with the appropriate flexibility."If we have an opportunity to make a difference and bring them (Russia) to the negotiating table, we will take it," Rubio concluded.

11:00 The North Atlantic Alliance will be very strong after increasing defense spending to five percent of GDP. US President Donald Trump told reporters today during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Marek Rutte. They met shortly before today's alliance summit in The Hague.

When asked about the current US administration's view of the mutual defense commitments of alliance countries arising from Article Five of the NATO Treaty, Trump said:"We are completely with them." According to agencies, on his way to the summit, Trump again introduced some uncertainty as to whether the United States would uphold its mutual defense commitment under all circumstances, a key pillar of the alliance's functioning.

10:55 Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said today, as he arrived at the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, that Russia does not pose a real threat because NATO is much stronger. He also noted that Ukraine is not the alliance's business because it is not a member.

Journalists asked Orbán as he arrived for the meeting whether Russia would be referred to as a threat today. The Hungarian prime minister replied that it always is. When asked if he agreed with this description, he hesitated, but ultimately stated that NATO is much stronger.

10:50 Russia is a threat to the security of the European continent, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said today upon arriving at the NATO summit. According to Reuters, he also said that the statesmen at the summit will decide on a significant increase in armaments spending. Greater investment in the military is one of the alliance's responses to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

"We are not making these decisions to do anyone a favor, but out of the conviction that we need to strengthen our defense," Merz said. He noted that defense investment would rise to 3.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and another 1.5 percent of economic output would go to militarily usable areas such as infrastructure and cybersecurity.

The current target of two percent of GDP has long been criticized as insufficient by US President Donald Trump, for example. He also points out that some countries are not fulfilling this commitment. Germany, like the Czech Republic, met the two percent target for military investment for the first time last year.

10:45 Russia is exhausted after more than three years of aggression against Ukraine. It is not ready to attack another country now, but it poses a real risk in the future, outgoing Polish President Andrzej Duda told reporters as he arrived for talks of leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member states in The Hague. According to him, the alliance must prepare for the potential threat and increase defense spending.

"It is absolutely essential for our security and future," noted the president of the country, which has strongly supported the invaded Ukraine since the beginning of Russian aggression in February 2022.

Duda said that for Poland, which spends the most money on defense in proportion to its GDP in the alliance, he would be in favor of achieving the goal by 2030. According to him, he was the first to put the topic on the table earlier, talking about it with former US President Joe Biden and current head of state Donald Trump, who was a presidential candidate at the time.

He said that at the time he advocated for NATO countries to spend the same amount of money on defense as during the Cold War."It is necessary. We see the threat of Russian potential aggression, Russian imperialist policy," he said today. He believes that the allies will find agreement on increasing commitments.

10:35 An AFP source from the Ukrainian President's presidential office confirmed on Wednesday morning that, alongside the summit of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) leaders in The Hague, Netherlands, Volodymyr Zelensky will meet with White House chief of staff Donald Trump, a special correspondent for TASR reports.

The meeting is expected to take place around 1:30 p.m. after a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, at which member state leaders are expected to confirm a significant increase in defense spending to up to five percent of GDP.

Zelensky has been at the summit venue since Tuesday. He held talks with several leaders of the Alliance's member states and also spoke in the Dutch parliament. He was also invited to a state dinner for leaders at the invitation of Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima at the royal palace Huis ten Bosch. However, he will not attend the working session of the Alliance's leaders.

10:30 Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof is confident that NATO will reach unity on increasing defense spending to five percent of GDP at today's summit in The Hague. According to Schoof, today will be a historic day for the alliance."We are working to strengthen defense and deterrence. We want to achieve unity today and also increase defense production," Schoof told reporters upon arriving at the summit. He added that the increase in defense spending is related to the alliance commitments that individual countries have made.

Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen told reporters that the alliance is the strongest in history and will become even stronger by increasing defense spending. She considers strengthening the alliance's resilience and trying to pressure Russia to agree to a ceasefire to be essential, which she said individual states, the European Union and the United States must work on.

According to Valtonen, there is unity in increasing defense spending to five percent of GDP. She also noted that US President Donald Trump undoubtedly stands behind the alliance, including Article Five of the NATO pact on mutual defense, i.e. the commitment to mutual defense.

"Estonia will increase defense spending to 5.4 percent of GDP next year. These are not just empty words," Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal told reporters. According to him, the Baltic country can thus be an example for others."NATO must increase defense production, Russia produces the same amount of ammunition in three months as NATO does in a year," the prime minister added.

What is NATO? Freedom, democracy, support for Ukraine...

According to President Petr Pavol, who represents the Czech Republic at the summit, the Czech Republic is ready to support the commitment, while Spain and Slovakia have expressed objections. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez claims that the country only needs to spend 2.1 percent to achieve the goals that NATO is demanding from Madrid. According to estimates by the North Atlantic Alliance, Spain spent 1.24 percent of its GDP on defense in 2024.

"I want to emphasize that all allies are committed to the same declaration from the NATO summit, there are no exceptions, no one has any special treatment, it is just a question of interpretation," said Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever. According to him, the alliance is not"stupid" and knows what it is talking about when it set 3.5 percent of GDP to meet current alliance commitments."If Sánchez can do it for less, he is a genius," added De Wever. He said reaching 3.5 percent of GDP in terms of defense spending by 2035 was a realistic goal for Belgium.

10:20 Spain does not expect any consequences for its decision not to spend the required five percent of GDP on defense. This was stated by the Spanish Minister of Economy Carlos Cuerpo on Wednesday. Leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member states are expected to definitively confirm a significant increase in defense spending at a summit in The Hague, Netherlands, on Wednesday. However, Spain has announced that it will not increase its defense spending to such a high level.

"Spain will be a responsible ally," declared Cuerpo, stressing that Madrid will fulfill its military commitments to NATO."There should be no consequences for fulfilling our commitments and being a reliable NATO ally, because we cover the capabilities to which we have committed and which are necessary to defend NATO against different threats," he explained.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Sunday that his country would not spend more than 2.1 percent of its GDP on defense, as this level of spending would be enough to meet Spain's commitments to the alliance. The prime minister said the proposed spending level was"disproportionate, unnecessary and not in line with the principle of the welfare state."

US President Donald Trump also expressed his disagreement with the Spanish position on Tuesday, saying it was unfair to other NATO member states.

10:15 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed the ceasefire between Iran and Israel on Tuesday evening, meeting with his American counterpart on the sidelines of the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands. He also called for close dialogue to end the war in Ukraine, which Russia invaded in February 2022.

The war in Ukraine is one of the key topics of the two-day Alliance summit, which began on Tuesday with a state dinner for leaders at the invitation of Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima at the royal palace Huis ten Bosch.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was present, posted a photo of all the leaders on the X network and wrote:"Together we will definitely be able to protect lives and achieve real security and peace."

Together, we will definitely be able to protect lives and achieve true security and peace.

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 24, 2025

Erdogan stressed the importance of close cooperation in a peaceful settlement of the Russia-Ukraine war and the early end of the"humanitarian tragedy" in the Gaza Strip, according to a statement from his office. He also"expressed satisfaction with the ceasefire reached between Israel and Iran thanks to the efforts of President Trump" and hoped it would be lasting.

The leaders also stressed the importance of taking measures to strengthen NATO's deterrence capabilities. The Turkish president also called for increased cooperation with the United States in the defense industry, which he said could significantly boost mutual trade.

French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also met on the sidelines of the NATO summit. The trio, according to Starmer's office, called on Iran to return to the negotiating table to help reduce tensions in the Middle East. On Ukraine, the leaders discussed the need to put more pressure on Moscow, including through additional sanctions.

In addition to this trilateral meeting, Macron held a bilateral meeting with Zelensky. On the X network, he confirmed France's unwavering support for Ukraine and strongly condemned the Russian attack on Dnipro, which claimed 17 lives, as well as the strikes on Ukrainian cities in recent weeks.

"Although Ukraine agreed to a ceasefire proposed by President Trump more than three months ago, Russia continues to reject peace. It bombs, kills and violates international law without being held accountable. Russia cannot be allowed to continue killing with impunity," Macron said.

Zelensky previously said in a speech to the Dutch parliament that Russia had attacked Ukraine with 28,743 Iranian-made Shahid drones since the start of the war. In June alone, 2,736 such attacks were recorded.

According to Zelensky, the Russian military uses these drones primarily for nighttime attacks that repeatedly hit residential areas. Without the"Iranian regime," Moscow would not be able to do this, Zelensky noted.

According to Zelensky, the topic of the conversation with Macron was also the possibility of expanding the Ukrainian air fleet with additional French Mirage fighters. They also discussed joint production and investment in drones.

Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported on Tuesday evening that 22 Ukrainian drones had been shot down, according to the TASS agency.

10:00 The draft joint statement, which is to be adopted by the leaders of NATO member states at the summit in The Hague on Wednesday, does not confirm the prospect of Ukraine's membership in the Alliance. This was reported by the DPA agency, which had the document at its disposal. According to it, the heads of state and government will only assure Kiev of"the continued maintenance of the allies' commitments to provide support to Ukraine".

The two-day NATO summit officially began on Tuesday evening with a state dinner for leaders at the invitation of Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima at the royal palace Huis ten Bosch. US President Donald Trump is also present, while Slovak President Peter Pellegrini is representing the country, who described the dinner in an Instagram post as a good opportunity to talk about the summit's topics in an informal setting.

The meeting is expected to be dominated by the issue of increasing defense spending. The allies are expected to agree to spend at least five percent of GDP on defense, meeting this target by 2035. The text of the joint statement was approved by member state representatives on Sunday.

One of the key topics of the meeting will be the ongoing war in Ukraine, which was militarily invaded by neighboring Russia in February 2022. Last year's Alliance summit in Washington ended with a promise that Ukraine was on an"irreversible path" to NATO membership. At the time, Joe Biden was the US president.

This year's statement will instead focus on a broader pledge of continued support for Kiev, Alliance officials said, according to Politico magazine. Similar information was also reported by the DPA agency.

Trump and his administration have publicly ruled out Ukraine joining NATO. However, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte confirmed on Monday that its path is still “irreversible” and said a communiqué would emerge from the summit in The Hague that would include “important language” linking the alliance’s new commitment to spend five percent of its GDP on defense to support Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is also in The Hague. According to media reports, he may meet with Trump on the sidelines of the summit. However, he will not attend the official working session on Wednesday.

8:50 NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Wednesday ahead of a leaders' meeting in The Hague that there was no alternative to increasing defense spending given the ongoing threat from Russia. He also assured that the United States remained firmly committed to its commitments to the Alliance.

"Given the long-term threat from Russia, but also the massive military buildup in China and the fact that North Korea, China and Iran are supporting the war effort in Ukraine, it is really important that we spend more. So that will be item number one on the agenda today," Rutte told reporters.

In addition to the need to increase defense spending, he also highlighted the need to develop the defense industry."We have fantastic companies, but we need to add more production lines... and make sure we produce the ammunition and all the other things we need," the Alliance chief said.

Rutte added that the meeting will also discuss Ukraine. According to him, it is necessary to ensure that Kiev can continue to count on NATO support in the fight against Russia and in the effort to achieve lasting peace in the coming years.

He also emphasized that the United States is"absolutely committed" to the North Atlantic Alliance and its key commitment to collective defense enshrined in Article Five of the North Atlantic Treaty.

AFP recalls that US President Donald Trump has repeatedly made statements questioning this commitment."It depends on your definition. There are many definitions of Article 5," Trump said before flying to the summit."It is very clear to me that the United States is fully committed to NATO and fully committed to Article 5," Rutte responded.

According to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, each contracting party undertakes to consider an armed attack against one or more member countries as an attack against them all. In such an event, the member states undertake, individually or in concert with the other contracting parties, to"take such steps as they deem necessary, including the use of armed force".

At the summit in The Hague, Rutte wants to convince heads of state and government to more than double the current defense spending target from two to five percent of GDP: 3.5 percent should be available for the military alone, 1.5 percent for spending in related areas - so-called dual-use projects.

8:43 AM Air defenses destroyed dozens of Ukrainian drones over various regions of Russia overnight. Authorities there said this. Ukraine also reported more than 50 drones destroyed.

The governor of Russia's Voronezh region, Alexander Gusev, said on Telegram that there were no injuries and that more than 40 drones had been destroyed over the area.

In Rostov Oblast, which borders Ukraine, Governor Yuri Slyusar said air defense units had repelled a series of attacks in three districts and that drones had damaged a stadium in the city of Taganrog and a grain warehouse in the city of Azov. Slyusar said no one was injured in that attack either. The governor of the Volga region of Ulyanovsk wrote that eight attacking drones had been repelled.

The Defense Ministry in Moscow said that Russian air defenses had destroyed 62 Ukrainian drones between Tuesday afternoon and this morning.

Ukraine also reported dozens of enemy drones destroyed. Its air force said that Russia attacked with 71 drones. Of these, 32 were shot down and 20 were neutralized by electronic warfare.

7:15 The politician entrusted with one of the main tasks by the Ukrainian president is facing a major corruption scandal. The police have accused Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov of abusing the powers of a public official, claiming that he gained an unjustified advantage. In other words: investigators have come to the conclusion that he was corrupt.

7:00 Britain will buy twelve new American F-35A fighter jets capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons and join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) air nuclear mission. According to AFP, Reuters and the BBC, the office of Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced this on Tuesday, and London will announce this intention on Wednesday at the NATO summit in The Hague.

6:30 NATO intelligence services indicate that Russian President Vladimir Putin will continue attacks in Ukraine despite losses because he believes that the Russian army can make a breakthrough on the front. A senior NATO official, who wished to remain anonymous, told reporters at the NATO summit.

6:25 Ukrainian President Zelensky will only attend an informal dinner at the NATO summit and will not be present at the negotiations. According to Viktor Orbán, this is not a coincidence, but rather the end of an era, the Hungarian daily Magyar Nemzet reported.

According to Viktor Orbán, one of the most significant moments of the NATO summit is that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not officially participating in the event."In diplomacy, the question is not where I am, but where I am not. That is more important. And that is exactly the case now," he told Magyar Nemzet. According to the Hungarian prime minister, the absence of the Ukrainian president sends a clear signal that a chapter has been closed.

"The Americans, the Turks, the Slovaks and we have made it clear that we do not want to sit at the same table with Mr. Zelensky when it comes to NATO," he said. At the same time, he believes that"it is in Hungary's national interest not to be in any integration community with Ukraine. Neither in NATO nor in the European Union."