Create an account Reset password Already have an account? Log in From now on you can download videos from our website If you would also like to subscribe to the newsletter and receive our latest updates, click on the button below. Enter the email address you registered with and we will send you a code to reset your password. The password must be at least 12 characters long, no spaces, include upper/lowercase letters,...
Create an account Reset password Already have an account? Log in From now on you can download videos from our website If you would also like to subscribe to the newsletter and receive our latest updates, click on the button below. Enter the email address you registered with and we will send you a code to reset your password. The password must be at least 12 characters long, no spaces, include upper/lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. Click the button to return to the page you were on and log in with your new password. 07 July 2026 1 MIN READ NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte Good afternoon, Volodymyr. Great to see you, and welcome to the NATO Summit. What we are seeing over the last couple of months is what you guys are doing. It is really courageous. You are successful in hitting the Russian energy infrastructure, the Russian defence infrastructure, deep inside Russia. As you said in your speech, Putin is willing to sacrifice up to 30, some months, even 35,000 of his own men being killed on the battlefield. Can you imagine the enormous loss it is for families and everyone? This is what the Russian President is willing to do. But militarily it is crucial that you have these successes. And then on the on the front line, I mean, only four or five months ago, you still, you still saw the Russians making gains, and now it is much less so. You are much more successful, also on the front line. I think there's one big issue we have to work on, that's air defence, air defence, air defence. Making sure your cities, your vital infrastructure, is protected. And by the way, when I list all the issues Russia is facing, one of the most important ones is what you're doing to their economy. Their economy is in a very bad shape, in Russia. So, maybe just one message. Let me repeat what I said when I visited with the ambassadors of NATO in Kyiv, if you're a young man in Russia today and you contemplate to join the military, you might be one of those 30,000 this month, next month, the months after, you know that your President in Russia, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, is willing to sacrifice you. So think about it again before you join the military. And again, thank you for being here, and being such an incredible leader and friend. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy Thank you, dear Mark. Thank you personally, and thanks to President Erdoğan for the invitation to NATO Summit. Thank you for this opening forum, which is very important, Defence Industry Forum. Thank you for the organisation, and this is important, and I hope that our companies, not everybody, because we have hundreds of the companies, but some representatives of our sector, defence sector, will present what they do, how they do, and I think this is very important to share all this experience with partners. The second point, I agree with Mark absolutely. We can speak about different initiatives, which are important for Ukraine: Danish initiative, Czech initiative, anti-ballistic, the new initiative, but Mark is absolutely, first of all very helpful with the PURL programme. Thank you very much, because of this programme, we can get, maybe sometimes not too much, but anyway, PAC-3, PAC-2 missiles from the United States. And tomorrow we will speak about different topics with President Trump, and also about this, but also what is important is today to find from, to find, a way, how to get, how to get as quick as possible, as much as possible, missiles for Patriot systems. This is the most important thing. We will discuss, because, Mark, this topic, we understand who is not only Americans, by the way, from our friends, they have these possibilities. We need, we need it very much, and this urgent topic for us. I think you saw all these attacks from Russia, each day, attacks. It's true that they begin to be weak on the battlefield. They, I mean, Russians, and they still have a lot of soldiers, and still we have to defend our soldiers. Also, when we speak about defending, when we speak about air defence, we need it for civilians, but also for our army. We need them, to defend them, and so, and of course, we see that the weakness of Russia, we feel it, but it's not enough. We need more pressure, more anti-ballistic, and more sanctions on Russia. Thank you so much. Link was copied to clipboard
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