Zelensky Presses NATO in Ankara for More Air Defense Systems Against Russia’s Ballistic Missiles

At NATO’s summit in Ankara, Turkey, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky renewed calls for Ukraine to join NATO and pressed allies for more air defense systems to defend against Russia’s ballistic missiles.

“In the morning of August 11, two Italian F-35 fighters of the Task Force Air – 32nd Wing, deployed to the Estonian air base at Ämari, already engaged in a training mission, were activated for a scramble, while still airborne, by an immediate order from the NATO Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) in Uedem (Germany)”

Aeronautica Militare

Zelensky told the NATO Defense Industry Forum, “Please help us get more air defense missiles. This is our top priority right now,” and warned that Ukraine still lacks the means to stop Russian ballistic missiles.

Aeronautica Militare

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced new investments and planned spending on air capabilities, including the purchase of five Triton high-altitude drones, a fleet of Airbus A400M aircraft, and 10 SAAB GlobalEye aircraft for air warning and surveillance.

Rutte said, “We are on the cusp of this transatlantic defense industrial revolution,” while Newsweek reported Trump revisited grievances at the summit news conference, saying the United States has “invested” in the alliance “to protect European countries” from Russia.

The summit’s Russia-related backdrop included DW’s account that talks were taking place amid Russia’s continued invasion of Ukraine and a fragile US-Iran ceasefire deal.

Zelensky’s argument at the summit tied Ukraine’s drone capability to NATO’s collective defense, asking, “Do you really believe it would be right to leave outside NATO, a country and a people with this level of defensive capability?”

Newsweek reported Trump condemned NATO for lack of support in the Iran war, telling the summit news conference on Tuesday, “Germany turned us down, and France turned us down,” and threatening to pull American troops from Europe.

CBS News

In Ankara, Politico reported Zelensky said Patriot production is not enough and urged Europe to build mass-produced anti-ballistic systems “today, not years from now.”

A separate report from Jefferson City News Tribune described an overnight attack on the eve of the NATO summit in which Eleven people were killed and 60 injured in strikes on Kyiv, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying on X that Ukraine didn’t shoot down any of the 23 Iskander-M ballistic missiles or the six high-speed Zircon and Oniks missiles.

The same Jefferson City News Tribune account quoted Zelenskyy warning that “As long as Patriot missiles remain in our allies' stockpiles, Russia is only encouraged to keep 'vanquishing' residential buildings,” and said the only air-defense weapon in Ukraine’s arsenal capable of reliably countering ballistic threats is Patriot.

Beyond the summit floor, Wired described NATO’s eastern-flank posture as increasingly militarized, citing a fleet of 14 NATO Boeing E-3A AWACS with a 9-meter-diameter rotating radar antenna flying at an altitude of 9,150 meters.

“Ahead of the NATO summit, Bianna Golodryga speaks to Michael Kofman, a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace about whether the alliance is prepared for a potential Russia threat after Ukraine”

CNN

Wired said NATO defines its AWACS aircraft as the Alliance’s “eyes in the sky,” and quoted NATO’s website describing the mission as “to track Russian warplanes, detect missiles, and observe everything that moves.”

The same Wired account tied the AWACS role to NATO’s strengthened deterrence and defense posture between Russia and NATO after Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, and said the aircraft have conducted hundreds of patrols along the Alliance’s eastern flank, the Baltic and the Black Sea.

In a separate report, Comunicazione Italiana quoted Switzerland’s defense minister Martin Pfister warning that the “pericolo di guerra tra Russia e Nato è concreto,” and said the Swiss government is preparing a new “Strategia in materia di politica di sicurezza” while planning to reach a contingente of 55-70 modern combat aircraft.

Pfister also said the war of aggression by Russia against Ukraine “ha segnato uno spartiacque per la politica di sicurezza e anche la Svizzera ne subisce direttamente le conseguenze,” linking Russian actions to European and Swiss security planning.