The meeting on 15 August excludes Ukraine initially, but Rutte insisted that any substantive negotiations on territory and security guarantees "will have to be—and will be—involved" Ukrainian participation.
Poland is leading European efforts to use frozen Russian assets to fund Trump's $10 billion weapons package for Ukraine rather than burden European taxpayers with the costs. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas argues that Washington should share financial responsibility instead of expecting allies to fund American weapons purchases entirely. Meanwhile, the first Patriot missiles are already being shipped from Germany as up to 17 air defense systems head to Ukraine with potential authorization for long-range strikes inside Russia.
Kaja Kallas argued that Washington should share financial responsibility rather than expecting European allies to fund American weapons purchases entirely.
As the US Defense Secretary misses Ramstein, Ukraine and its European partners strike a game-changing pact: not just weapons, but weapons factories—on Ukrainian soil.
Polish prosecutors are investigating why a licensed defense company failed to complete its contracted delivery of anti-aircraft systems to Ukraine, instead leaving the weapons in border region storage where they remained without proper oversight.
The US president also confirmed that Ukraine would participate in future peace negotiations with Russia as Zelenskyy emphasized that no decisions about Ukraine should be made without Ukraine and Europe.