Zelenskyy says Nato should let Ukraine join to ‘make all of us stronger’

Volodymyr Zelenskyy was speaking at Nato’s defence industry forum in Ankara, Turkey. Photograph: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto/Shutterstock View image in fullscreen Volodymyr Zelenskyy was speaking at Nato’s defence industry forum in Ankara, Turkey. Photograph: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto/Shutterstock Zelenskyy says Nato should let Ukraine join to ‘make all of us stronger’ Ukraine’s president says defensive capabilities built up in war with Russia mean it would be wrong to exclude it Europe live – latest updates Volodymyr Zelenskyy has argued for Ukraine to be allowed to join Nato at its annual summit – saying it would be wrong to exclude a country that had built up strong defences in its long struggle against the Russian invasion. The Ukrainian president said his country had developed almost all the weapons it needed, and now only required European help in developing an alternative to the US Patriots to protect against ballistic missile attack. “I have a question for you. Do you really believe it? Do you really believe it would be right to leave outside Nato , a country and a people with this level of defensive capability?” Zelenskyy said at Nato’s defence industry forum. “If we already have these capabilities, if Ukrainians already know how to fight like this, then it does make sense for these capabilities to become a part of the alliance’s collective defence that would make all of us stronger,” he added. Ukraine is in the fifth year of fighting off the invasion by its larger neighbour. The conflict has reached the point where Russia’s rate of advance has ground to a crawl and Kyiv is able to attack economic targets as far afield as Siberia. A senior Nato official briefed that Russian forces had advanced 3.79 sq km a day in June, a quarter the rate a year ago, and that the invaders were continuing to take 30,000 to 35,000 casualties a month. However, Ukraine’s aspiration to become a member of Nato remains far off, with allies including the US not interested in allowing a country at war with nuclear-armed Russia to become part of the western military alliance. The Ukrainian president will be a guest at a leaders’ dinner on Tuesday evening at the Turkish presidential palace compound in Ankara, and is due to meet Donald Trump on Wednesday lunchtime for a bilateral meeting. Trump spoke separately to Zelenskyy and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, at the weekend amid growing hopes the US president would renew mediation efforts to end the war. “I think they both want to make a deal. ... ‌I think we’re going to get it settled, hopefully soon,” Trump said as he met the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan View image in fullscreen Zelenskyy speaks with the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, at the Nato forum. Photograph: Filip Singer/EPA Zelenskyy highlighted how the long war had transformed his country’s industrial capabilities, noting that on Monday Ukrainian drones had “broken through Russia’s defences” and struck an oil refinery in Omsk, Siberia, 1,6