{"id":8333,"date":"2026-07-19T09:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T09:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/8333\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T09:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T09:12:09","slug":"opinion-from-ct-to-kyiv-i-saw-ukraine-left-nato-summit-a-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/8333\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: From CT to Kyiv I saw Ukraine left NATO summit a winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

In February 2022, when Russian President Vladimir Putin initiated his unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he was betting on a feeble response from the West. Nearly four and a half years later, Putin continues to hope the West\u2019s support will ultimately dwindle, allowing him to finally succeed in his special military operation in Ukraine<\/a>. Unfortunately, the NATO summit in Ankara,<\/a> Turkey on July 7-8, 2026 may prove otherwise.<\/p>\n

The two-day conference in Turkey\u2019s capital produced a powerful display of unity on the critical issue of continued support for Ukraine\u2019s war effort. This was achieved despite high-level tensions between US President Donald Trump and other NATO leaders of state on hot issues like Greenland, Europe\u2019s security and the US-Israel conflict with Iran. The support included major funding commitments totaling billions of dollars for 2026 and 2027, and official acknowledgment of Ukraine\u2019s transition from aid beneficiary to transatlantic security contributor.<\/p>\n

Trump says US will give Ukraine license to produce Patriot defense systems<\/a><\/p>\n

Perhaps the most relevant feature of the summit was the attitude change from Trump regarding Ukraine. Frequently critical or derisive of Ukraine in the past, Trump described his relationship with Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as \u201cvery good\u201d, recognized Ukraine\u2019s recent military advancements and praise the country\u2019s future outlook.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, Trump agrees to grant Kyiv a license to produce interceptor missiles for the Patriot air defense system. While any joint-production agreement will require some time to execute, this was nonetheless an enormous boon for Ukraine\u2019s long-term security.<\/p>\n

While Kyiv has made significant progress since 2022 in defending itself against Russian missile and drone attacks, the country remains extremely vulnerable to ballistic missile strikes. The Patriot system is the only method currently capable of intercepting Russia\u2019s ballistic missiles. Ukraine is also running out of ammunition in the midst of a declining global supply.<\/p>\n

NATO unveils billions in arms deals to prove its firepower as Trump again demands Greenland<\/a><\/p>\n

Moscow seeks to capitalize on this shortage with ballistic missile strikes in early July killing dozens of Ukrainian civilians including children, and wounding hundreds more. A license to produce interceptors in Ukraine would help eliminate some of the ballistic threat to the civilian population and combat what Zelenskyy says is Russia\u2019s \u201clast remaining argument in this war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s endorsing perspective toward Ukraine arrives at a time when global awareness is sensing the fortunes of war turning in Ukraine\u2019s favor. In the first six months of 2026, Russia\u2019s military has struggled to advance and in reality has lost ground in certain sections of the frontlines. Swiftly developing Ukrainian drone warfare proficiencies have imposed a logistics lockdown on Russian-occupied Crimea and successfully bombarded military and industrial targets inside Russia.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s creative utilization of drones has ignited a surging fuel crisis across the Russian Federation that has brought the war front and center to the Russian people for the first time. This is eroding Putin\u2019s persistent attempts to guard the Russian population from the negative impact of invading Ukraine. It has also unmasked Putin\u2019s swagger predicting certain Russian victory.<\/p>\n

Ukraine and 9 other countries announce a coalition to protect Europe from ballistic missiles<\/a><\/p>\n

Several specific incidents in the past few months have underlined Putin\u2019s deteriorating position. In early March he was forced to significantly limit Russia\u2019s annual Victory Day festivities in Moscow and actually ask Trump\u2019s help to broker a temporary ceasefire for his military parade, which has always been a projection of strength by the Kremlin. Zelenskyy added to Putin\u2019s misery by issuing a parody presidential decree allowing the parade to proceed.<\/p>\n

In June, Ukraine marked the start of Putin\u2019s flagship St. Petersburg International Economic Forum by bombing the city\u2019s naval base and oil terminal, leaving the city\u2019s skies puffing black smoke while foreign dignitaries arrived at the forum venue. A few weeks later, Moscow itself was bombarded by Ukraine, including several loud strikes on the Russian capital\u2019s oil refinery.<\/p>\n

These attacks have helped alter the perception of the war inside Russia and among the outside world. Putin\u2019s inability to defend high-priority targets in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Russian-occupied Crimea, along with the country\u2019s all-important energy industry infrastructure have many beginning to think his persistent talk of victory is delusional.<\/p>\n

Ukraine downs 5 Russian ballistic missiles as Kyiv looks to boost its air defenses<\/a><\/p>\n

The unity shown in Ankara will only stimulate additional doubts over Moscow\u2019s capacity to end the conflict favorably. Putin and his Kremlin oligarchs have confidently anticipated a crumbling of Western assistance for Ukraine. Many in Moscow thought Donald Trump\u2019s return to the White House would begin this course of action. Subsequently, Europe has increased its support while recognizing that Ukraine\u2019s advanced military capabilities will play a key role in the future of the continent\u2019s security.<\/p>\n

The Kremlin\u2019s answer to the NATO summit was predictably harsh with their Foreign Ministry denouncing NATO for \u201cirresponsible decisions that could lead to a catastrophe for the whole world.\u201d This bombastic rhetoric echoes an inherent feeling of frustration in Russia over the failure to segregate Ukraine from the West. Moscow continues to stand firm that it will meet the goals of their invasion. They do not realize that with Western leaders standing with Ukraine, Russia has no clear route to win the war.<\/p>\n

Ihor N. Stelmach is a former principal and history teacher at St. Michael\u2019s Ukrainian Parochial School in Hartford.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In February 2022, when Russian President Vladimir Putin initiated his unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he was betting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3077,4707,105,47,4708,156,358,66,7,288,4711,140,4709,20,3431,1937,2356,142,71,4710,130,607],"class_list":["post-8333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-aggression","tag-bombing","tag-education","tag-europe","tag-hartford","tag-iran","tag-kyiv","tag-military","tag-nato","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-president-volodymyr-zelenskyy","tag-putin","tag-qatar","tag-russia","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-teacher","tag-threat","tag-trump","tag-ukraine","tag-united-arab-emirates","tag-war","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/nato\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}