Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks at the annual Yalta European Strategy meeting in this handout photo on Friday.Supplied/AFP/Getty Images
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said NATO needed to mount a stronger response to last week’s incursion by Russian drones into Poland, or the Kremlin will believe it can push even further.
Nineteen Russian drones crossed into Polish airspace early Wednesday morning, several of which were shot down in the first-ever direct clash between NATO warplanes and Russian military hardware. In the aftermath, Poland invoked Article 4 of the NATO treaty, which calls for consultations whenever the territory of member state is threatened.
On Friday, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte announced the start of a new military operation, Eastern Sentry, that will see France, Germany and Denmark deploy additional fighter jets to the alliance’s eastern frontier in Poland and the Baltic States. The mission will be supported by a Danish frigate and ground-based air-defence systems. Britain also announced new sanctions targeting the “shadow fleet” of vessels that export Russian oil in contravention of Western sanctions.
Mr. Zelensky made it clear that he was underwhelmed by what he’s seen so far. He said Russian President Vladimir Putin was intentionally testing resolve of NATO and the West – and that, if the alliance didn’t push back harder than it has so far, the Russian leader would likely be pleased with the result.
Poland invokes NATO treaty Article 4 after drones shot down during Russian attack on Ukraine
“NATO countries are mobilizing military aircraft – but a couple of days go by and this ceases to be a topic of conversation. And what are the consequences for Russia? Let’s be honest, none,” Mr. Zelensky told the annual Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv. “Nobody wants to expand the war. Nobody wants to talk about that… we are simply warning that a strong response is needed.”
Writing on social media Saturday, following Mr. Zelensky’s remarks, U.S. President Donald Trump said that he was willing to introduce “major” new sanctions on Russia as soon as NATO countries ended all purchases of Russian oil. NATO member Turkey is a major buyer of Russian oil, as is the European Union.
Mr. Trump also called for NATO to collectively slap 50 to 100 per cent tariffs on China, which has increased its trade with Russia to record levels since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, until the war is over. “If NATO does as I say, the WAR will end quickly, and all of those lives will be saved! If not, you are just wasting my time, and the time, energy, and money of the United States,” he wrote.
Earlier, Mr. Zelensky said he hoped the alliance would respond to the incident in Poland by giving Ukraine the military and financial assistance it needs not only to shoot down Russian drones and missiles, but to strike deep into Russia at the factories where the kamikaze drones are produced.
Speaking less than a week after a Russian missile struck the main Ukrainian government building in the heart of Kyiv for the first time, destroying the top two floors, Mr. Zelensky said Russia hoped the incursion into Polish airspace would cause NATO members to question whether they needed to focus on their own military preparedness, rather than helping Ukraine.
“The signal he’s sending to Europe is ‘Don’t be in a rush to send air defences to Ukraine.’”
Zelensky, in this handout photo, welcomes Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski prior to their talks in Kyiv on Friday.Supplied/AFP/Getty Images
Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, who also attended the conference, agreed the alliance needed to show its resolve, and said he hoped to see a stronger line from the United States in particular. Mr. Trump has spoken dismissively of the incident, suggesting the drone incursion “could have been a mistake.”
“We hope the United States will join other allies in solidarity,” Mr. Sikorski said. “We need to collectively show Putin that there are limits to his hybrid war, where we will stop him. Because remember, this is not an isolated incident. It’s part of a pattern.”
The annual YES conference is organized by the foundation of Viktor Pinchuk, one of Ukraine’s most powerful businessmen. This year’s event was held under high security and extreme secrecy, with all reporting prohibited until the end of the two-day conference, when high-profile foreign guests had already departed Kyiv. The speeches and debating carried on despite an air raid in Kyiv on Saturday that lasted 24 minutes as a drone few towards the city.
Explainer: What is Article 4, the treaty provision invoked by Poland after Russian drone incursions?
Among the attendees was Keith Kellogg, Mr. Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, who alternated between suggesting that peace was almost within reach, and referencing the negotiations in Paris that led to the end of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War – a painstaking process that took five years. “We thought it was going to be easier to solve than it’s turned out to be,” Mr. Kellogg said of the effort to make peace in Ukraine, which last month saw Mr. Trump invite Mr. Putin to a summit meeting in Alaska.
Mr. Zelensky said there could be no exchange of Ukrainian territory for peace – a formula Mr. Trump seemed to endorse after meeting Mr. Putin in Alaska – since he was “100 per cent” sure that Russia would attack Ukraine again after it absorbed the new territories.
Mr. Zelensky said the concept of a land-for-peace trade was based on the perception that Russia’s military conquest of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region was now inevitable – an idea that he said was a product of Russian disinformation about its battlefield progress.
“When I heard in the White House that they will move and in three months will occupy the east of our country, that is a blatant lie. They will not get there in years,” he said, referring to an Aug. 19 meeting at the White House, during which Mr. Trump confronted the Ukrainian leader with a map of the territory already under Russian control.
Mr. Zelensky repeated that he was willing to meet face-to-face with Mr. Putin to discuss ceasefire terms. But, he said, the Russian leader wasn’t interested.
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that peace negotiations were currently on pause, accusing European nations of hindering progress.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb, whose country joined NATO in 2023 in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, told attendees that the drone incursion into Poland was another front in the “hybrid warfare” that Russia is waging against NATO and the West. He agreed that the West should provide Ukraine with the capabilities to strike drone factories in Russia.
“They’re testing our resilience,” Mr. Stubb said. “I think it’s important for Europe and the alliance to get used to this situation of instability, of un-peace, and not to overreact when it happens, but to be prepared for when it does.”
The conference included a salute to former Canadian prime minister Jean Chrétien, who addressed the first ever YES conference in 2004 and who – at the age of 91 – took an overnight train ride into a war zone to attend this year’s event. Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland, a well-known figure in Kyiv due to her Ukrainian heritage, also made the trip and moderated several panels.
“I want to congratulate the government and the people of Ukraine for the big fight they have put up,” Mr. Chrétien said in brief remarks after being introduced by Ms. Freeland. “Keep up the fight.”