Ukraine is front of mind ahead of the NATO summit spectacle

Every summer, the leaders of NATO member countries sit down and talk shop about the state of the world and what reforms the alliance should enact to make it a more capable force.

Before Donald Trump became president, the meeting was a boring affair, with scripted public chitchats and platitudes about transatlantic solidarity. Trump has replaced the sitcom with a reality show that, more often than not, leaves the European leaders with ulcers.

At this week’s NATO summit, Trump, per usual, will blast many of his European colleagues for penny-pinching on their defense budgets, notwithstanding the alliance increasing its collective non-U.S. defense budget by 20% from last year. If NATO delegates left last year’s summit on a relatively upbeat note, the participants will be lucky to escape this year without a tongue-lashing. Trump is still peeved at Europe’s unwillingness to support a war in Iran.

One constant between this year and the last is the war in Ukraine, which is grinding on with no end in sight. According to a draft NATO summit communique leaked last week, the organization is set to announce $80 billion in new military support to the Ukrainian army this year and “at least equivalent levels” of funding for 2027. This will be music to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s ears, who is in desperate need of air defense interceptors as Russian President Vladimir Putin orders increasingly lethal missile barrages against the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.