Trump to meet Zelenskyy in Turkey as NATO backs Ukraine

Trump was scheduled to meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of NATO’s summit in Ankara as Ukraine pressed allies to turn pledges into weapons, timelines and harder deterrence against Russia. The meeting followed Donald Trump’s separate calls with Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy on July 6, a day before the alliance opened a two-day gathering built around support for Ukraine and the war’s next phase.

The July 7-8 summit in Ankara centered on three priorities: raising allied defense investment, expanding transatlantic defense industrial production and sustaining support for Ukraine. The meeting also reviewed progress since the 2025 summit in The Hague and set a roadmap for future goals. Ankara was NATO’s second summit hosted by Türkiye, after Istanbul in 2004.

Deadly Russian strikes hit the capital on the eve of Trump’s trip, as the war entered its fifth year. Allies will continue providing unprecedented military assistance to Ukraine, but Ukrainian officials want that promise translated into clearer delivery schedules, more air defenses, longer-range weapons and a stronger signal that Russia cannot wait out Western politics.

Inna Sovsun, a Holos member of the Ukrainian parliament and chair of a subcommittee on EU acquis alignment and international legal obligations, argues that incremental aid lets Vladimir Putin drag out the war while testing the limits of Western patience, and that Ukraine needs allies to think strategically now, before summit rhetoric hardens into policy.

European allies and Canada increased core defense investment by $139 billion in 2025, and some members could already reach NATO’s 5 percent defense-spending target in 2026, far ahead of schedule. Allies were also managing tensions with Trump over spending and other issues, and Ukraine is pushing for military production, delivery timetables and a durable membership signal rather than headline pledges.