Joint press conference

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg

Good afternoon, President Zelenskyy, dear Volodymyr,

It is great to see you again. And welcome to the NATO Summit.

It’s always a pleasure to meet with you, but in particular when we meet at a NATO Summit where Allies are so eager to demonstrate their strong support to you and to the people of Ukraine. 

And let me pay tribute to your inspirational leadership. 

The heroism of your armed forces.

And the bravery of the Ukrainian people.

Since our last Summit, NATO Allies have provided Ukraine with unprecedented support, including tens of billions of euros in military aid. 

Here in Washington, Allies have taken decisions to ensure support for the long haul. 

Yesterday, we agreed a substantial package for Ukraine. 

First, NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine.

NATO will take over the coordination and provision of most international security assistance.
With a command led by a three-star general and around 700 personnel working at the NATO headquarters in Germany in Wiesbaden and at hubs in the eastern part of our Alliance. 

This will enhance Ukraine’s self-defence.

Second, a financial pledge.

NATO Allies have pledged a minimum baseline of 40 billion euros in military aid for Ukraine within the next year. And to sustain our support for Ukraine to prevail. 

Third, more immediate military support to Ukraine. 

Over the past days, Allies have pledged crucial additional military aid, including for air defence and other critical capabilities.

These donations will help save lives. 
And help beat back Russian invaders.

Fourth, more bilateral security agreements with Ukraine.

More than twenty Allies and partners have now signed bilateral security agreements with Ukraine, giving Ukraine enduring security commitments. 

Fifth, deepened military interoperability.

We will work more closely with the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Including through a new NATO-Ukraine Joint Analysis, Training and Education Centre in Poland.

And by deepening our cooperation on innovation and defence industrial production. 

President Zelenskyy, in our meeting just now, you and I agreed that all of these elements – 

a NATO command; 
more funding; 
more military support; 
more security agreements; and
more interoperability;

constitute a bridge to NATO membership,
and a very strong package for Ukraine.

Ukraine’s future is in NATO. 

I welcome your progress on reforms and as you continue this important work,  we will support you on your irreversible path to NATO membership. 

Shortly we will meet in the NATO-Ukraine Council, which we established last year at the Vilnius Summit.  

And discuss how to deepen our cooperation even further. 

So once again, President, dear Volodymyr, you have the floor.
 

President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Thank you very much Jens, thank you so much for the invitation, dear Jens, dear your team and dear journalists, I am grateful to you for your attention to Ukraine and for supporting our people and our absolutely just cause, the defence against Russian aggression. It is Russia that invaded our land. It's Russia that wants to take our lives. It's Russia that kills and destroys and through this war against Ukraine, It wants to show what awaits other countries if we do not endure. That is why we must endure. That is why we must preserve our unity, all partners, and that is why we must strengthen ourselves so that Russia does not succeed in making the world accept to the notion that wars of aggression are normal. Dear Jens, I want to thank you for all these meetings, for all these years for all the steps of our cooperation. Thank you so much, and the Allies have truly become stronger. And all that we have achieved together will continue to work for the benefit of all partners.

Now, within the framework of this NATO Summit, we have concrete successes, and very important for us, for our people, our children, very important decisions. First of all, we appreciate the decision on air defence, five Patriots for Ukraine and dozens of other systems. And we expect them to be delivered as soon as possible so that as many lives as possible can be saved. Second, a year ago, we began, you said about it, we began working on a new and strong architecture of security agreements. At that time, the G7 declaration in support of Ukraine was signed and over the past year, 32 countries have joined the declaration and today we signed another security agreement now with Romania. There will be more signings. Each agreement makes us stronger, and we will be in fact for the entire duration of our path to NATO. Today we will endorse the Ukraine compact and this document is a success for Ukraine as it develops our security architecture. We will definitely implement every point we have more than enough energy for this.

Third, of course during our meetings we with Jens and all other negotiations we are discussing now how to strengthen our warriors and give our people the opportunity to live normally and we will talk about this today at the meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council and we are counting on strong decisions, air defence, F16s, the permission to hit Russian territories exactly where they are. We will discuss these issues today. Anyway, we will resolve this topic we already have a decision regarding the need to a mission for Ukraine. This will help us train our soldiers faster and more efficiently equip our brigades and develop our defence forces more effectively. We have clear area of financial commitments already in our agreements, as Secretary has said $40 billion and it is crucial to maintain such support and all these will help curb Putin's appetite for aggression. And one more, one more thing. We have strong wording regarding the irreversibility of Ukraine's movement towards NATO, every step truly brings us closer to membership. We are doing and will continue do everything to ensure that the day comes when Ukraine is invited and becomes a NATO member and I'm confident we will achieve this. Thank you for your attention. Thank you for your support. Thank you. Slava Ukraini.

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Reuters: SecGen CNN has a report saying that the US and Germany foiled a Russian plot to kill the CEO of German arms maker Rheinmetall. That's the company that's producing artillery shells for Ukraine. Can you confirm that there was such a plot? And who were the other defence industry targets and what measures will NATO take in response to this? And to President Zelenskyy, another Summit is coming to a close and NATO has still not offered a political invitation to Ukraine to join. Do you see this as a defeat? And a second question, Russia has been slowly advancing in the East for months. When are you going to stop Russia troops? Thank you.

NATO Secretary General: Well, I can start to answer the first question by saying that I will not go into that specific report. What I can say is that we have seen a pattern, a Russian campaign, organized by their security services to conduct hostile actions against NATO Allies across the Alliance, with sabotage attempts, with cyber-attacks, with arson with different types of hostile actions against NATO Allies. And these are not standalone incidents these are part of a pattern, part of an ongoing Russian campaign. And the purpose of this campaign is, of course, to intimidate NATO Allies from supporting Ukraine.

And what we have seen over the last month is that NATO Allies have not been intimidated. NATO Allies are actually stepping up their support delivering more aid to Ukraine. And today, we agreed a package with a NATO command for Ukraine with a long-term financial pledge for Ukraine, with more immediate support with new Patriots and ammunition for Ukraine. And with the bilateral security agreements on top of everything we do to enhance our interoperability with Ukraine. So yes, we see a Russian attempt to intimidate us from providing support, but we see that it has, if anything, the opposite effect on NATO Allies, they're actually stepping up their support for Ukraine. One more thing is that we have seen arrests across the Alliance, in the United Kingdom, in Germany, in Poland in the Baltic countries, following these hostile actions and of course there are ongoing legal processes and what NATO does is also to increase intelligence-sharing to help Allies to protect against these actions.

President of Ukraine: Thank you so much for your questions. So first of all, we are very close to our goal. I think next step will be an invitation and after that will be membership. It’s understandable that we will not be in NATO until the war is over in Ukraine. But I hope that we will prevail. And today I see successes for our people, for our people, our families for them. Especially after this brutal attack on our hospital, the Children's Hospital. I think we are not we're not thinking in Ukraine about wording which are close or not close to NATO. We are thinking about real strong steps for very strong people. And speaking about the war you can't even sometimes use the word success, because success is no war in your country in your life. Success is when you don't lose your family that is success and to survive and to win this war, that will be the real success for us. And I think we have to stop speak that for Ukraine the membership in NATO that is success. I think this is success for both of us. We strengthen NATO. We're strong guys. We have a strong army and we are fighting against this tyrant Putin. And that's why Ukraine in NATO this is both successes. But for today when we speak about very concrete successes. Success is what gives us the possibility to live: Patriots, IRIS-T, Hawks. I didn't tell all these details, how many different countries and how many different systems we can have. So for us, it's to push them quicker and to have them quicker in Ukraine. That is a success for us for today. To be very honest with you.

NATO Spokesperson: Okay, one question at a time please because we're very short on time. Interfax Ukraine.

Interfax Ukraine Question regarding use of Allied weapon to hit target on Russia territory. Can we expect that finally, limitation and restriction will be lifted and Ukrainian will be able to prevent future attack on civilians and children hospitals. Thank you

NATO Secretary General: I think it's important to remember what this is. This is a war of aggression launched by Russia against a democratic friendly neighbour, Ukraine. Russia invaded Ukraine. That's a blatant violation of international law and according to international law, Ukraine, of course has the right to self-defence. NATO Allies have the right to help and uphold Ukraine’s right to self-defence without becoming party to the conflict. And the right of self-defence includes also the right to strike legitimate military targets on the territory of the aggressor, Russia. Therefore Allies have reduced, some Allies have not imposed any restrictions at all, it various a bit between Allies but Allies have reduced the restrictions on the use of the weapons delivered to Ukraine. And this has enabled Ukraine to strike legitimate military targets on the territory of Russia.

I think it was important to understand that in the beginning of the war, or actually until quite recently, most of the fighting took place on Ukrainian territory. The frontlines were inside Ukrainian territory so to hit military targets on the other side was to hit Russian military installations on Ukrainian territory. But since Russia opened a new front in Kharkiv, the front line and the borderline is more or less the same. So, the only way to hit military targets missile launchers or airfields, which are conducting attacks against Ukraine is to hit military targets on Russian territory because the frontline and the borderline is pretty much the same and therefore are welcomed Allies have reduced loosen their restrictions. And there's no doubt that Ukraine has the right to use the weapons that they have received their own weapons but also weapons that have been donated by Allies to hit legitimate military targets on Russian territory.

BBC: President Zelenskyy: First of all, have Allies loosened restrictions on long-range weapons being used inside Russian territory to hit Russian military targets or are there countries that are still not doing enough on that? And then separately, you were recently visited by Viktor Orban who then went to President Putin. Today we Viktor Orban is meeting President Trump you worried he's doing backroom deals without you knowing what's going on? Then I'd like to ask the Secretary General the same thing did you know he was going to see Trump? Do you know what he's going to talk about? And then just finally Secretary General on the decision by the US the agreement between the US and Germany to allow long-range weapons US weapons to go into Germany, from time to time? Is that likely to antagonize Russia or do you think it is a smart move? And if so, why? Thank you.

President of Ukraine: Thanks so much. First of all, answering the first part of your question and the previous question from the lady. We of course, if you if we want to win, if I want to prevail, if we want to save our country, and to defend it, we need to lift all the limitations.

I spoke about it with partners, with the UK leader, with United States President, with the Secretary [General] all of that, and I will raise this topic with very concrete facts. We understand where they stay, we understand from what military base they attack us, and if they attacked us and killed our children in the hospital. That is a crazy question why we can't answer and attack these especially, these persons, these military bases from where these guided bombs from jets or missiles came, targeted us and killed our children.

So for me, that's not rhetorical. For me it's real plan and for our people, not for soldiers, not only for soldiers that do their job, they understand it. Now, this is the plan for all our nations. And we are waiting from our Allies. And I'm sure that our friends and Allies will understand all of this. We've got very good messages from the UK leader and I hope that we will have we will make such decisions. And of course, if we really want to have Ukraine on the map, and not to have Putin who is attacked half of the planet. Yes, we need to do very concrete steps quick, very quick steps.

And the second part of your question, I forgot, I'm sorry,

BBC Orban.

President of Ukraine: He was in Kyiv, I didn't know that he will go to Putin, or then to China. And you said now to Trump. Yes. So, what’s the question where he will go tomorrow? I don't know. Maybe he will come again to Ukraine. I don't know. I mean, between us with all due respect to everybody. With all due respect to all the countries, big and small countries, we have to understand that not all the leaders can make negotiations. You need to have some power for this.

NATO Secretary General: Okay, on the same questions, so first, I can do the last question first on the on the issue of US, long range missiles deployed in Germany. Well they have announced that there will be periodic deployments of these long-range conventional missiles in the in Germany, that first of all demonstrate the US commitment to NATO to European security, which I think is a good and very clear and welcomed message.

Second, it demonstrates that NATO is about deterrence. The way NATO has prevented war and preserved peace is by have at all times credible deterrence. We live in a more dangerous world. We are seeing the aggressive actions by Russia against Ukraine, and therefore we have stepped up our conventional presence. We have strengthened our collective defence and periodic deployments of U.S. long range missiles in Germany is part of that, that picture and something I welcome

Then on different meetings conducted by different Allied leaders and also the Hungarian Prime Minister. Different Allied leaders meet different political leaders, and also sometimes meet opposition leaders in different countries. And it's not for NATO to try to regulate the travel plans for different NATO leaders. What matters for NATO is that all NATO Allies agree on the policy. And we have yesterday agreed a very strong declaration from the 32 Allies expressing our support to Ukraine, supporting Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty. And pledging to continue and to step of our support for Ukraine.

And I agree with what President Zelenskyy just said. Of course, language is important, but actions speak louder than words. So of course, the language of on membership, the irreversible path, the membership is important. But in many ways, what we do concretely together to support Ukraine is even more important. And the fact that we now are stepping up the provision of air defence systems that enables Ukraine to prevails and the only way for Ukraine to become a member is that Ukraine provides as a sovereign independent nation in Europe, the long term pledge, the NATO command, the bilateral security agreements, interoperability, these are concrete things we will do, finance and do together with Ukrainians and for me, actually, these actions speak louder than the language. The language is important but more important is actually the concrete actions we are doing together with Ukraine and all our Allies agreed on this. So that matters that's the language from NATO. Regardless over which leaders in opposition or in position, different NATO Prime Minister's or Presidents meets that, that doesn't undermine or reduce the importance of what we have agreed.