Ukraine and the U.S. have divergent views on Russia’s intent to end the war, Zelenskyi says. NATO’s energy facilities would be among the priority targets if Russia attacks the alliance, NATO’s annual report says. NATO Secretary General denies the reports that the U.S. could divert Ukraine military aid to the Middle East.
Ukraine, U.S. have divergent views on Russia’s intent to end the war, Zelenskyi says
Ukraine and the U.S. have divergent views on Russia’s intent to end the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said on X Thursday, citing what he told French newspaper Le Monde in an interview published that same day. Ukraine doesn’t see Russia as being ready to stop fighting and thus insists on putting more pressure on Moscow.
“We do not see any genuine desire from Russia to end the war, and we share this view with our partners. The United States believes that Putin wants the war to end. Our views here are completely different,” Zelenskyi said.
He added that “it’s normal for opinions to differ.” Yet Ukraine wants the war to end and “to accelerate this process, we raise the issue of putting pressure on Russia.”
“We know that Putin does not want to end the war. We call for additional pressure to make him want to. But the U.S. believes he wants to end it, so why apply extra pressure if Russia is showing it is also ready for peace?” Zelenskyi said.
Russia is preparing operations to disrupt Ukraine’s water supply system in the coming months, Zelenskyi said in his nightly address on Wednesday.
The scale of Russia overnight and daytime attacks on the country on Tuesday “strongly indicates that Russia has no intention of really ending this war,” Zelenskyi said on X. “(…) without additional and strong pressure on Russia, without significant Russian losses, those in Moscow will not develop any desire to back down from the war and somehow come to terms with peace again,” he added.
NATO’s energy facilities would be among priority targets if Russia attacks the alliance, NATO report says
NATO’s energy facilities would be among the priority targets if Russia attacks the alliance, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said while presenting NATO’s annual report on Thursday.
“Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has demonstrated that energy would also likely be a prime target in any attack directed at NATO,” the report says.
Russia remains the most significant and direct threat to NATO’s security. At the NATO-Ukraine Joint Analysis, Training and Education Centre (JATEC), Ukrainian and NATO personnel work “hand-in-hand to identify and apply lessons learned from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” the report reads.
“Throughout 2025, Russia continued to test the Alliance, becoming more reckless, including with airspace violations, sabotage and malign cyber activities,” Rutte said, as cited by the report. Speaking at NATO headquarters, he highlighted the creation of Baltic Sentry, to better guard against potential threats to undersea infrastructure, and Eastern Sentry, which further strengthened Allied deterrence along the eastern flank.
“The aim of all Allied security assistance to Ukraine is to bring the war to an end and achieve a just and lasting peace,” the report reads. Rutte also praised the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) launched in July 2025.
“In 2025, NATO developed a plan to enhance support to the Ukrainian industrial base, including by exploring new sources of investment and ways to integrate Ukraine’s industry into the Allied industry ecosystem,” the report says.
Between 2024 and 2025, European NATO members and Canada increased their defense spending by 20 per cent to USD 574 billion, the report found.
In 2025, Spain, Portugal, Albania, Belgium and Canada spent the lowest share of their GDP on defense — all at 2 per cent. Poland had the highest spending as a percentage of GDP in the alliance, at 4.3 percent, while Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Denmark were well above 3 percent. Luxembourg, Belgium and Slovenia raised their spending the most year-on-year in absolute terms, while spending dropped in Hungary, the Czech Republic and the U.S.
For the first time, all of NATO’s 32 members reported defense expenditure that met or exceeded the 2014 target of 2 per cent of GDP.
NATO Secretary General denies reports that U.S. could divert Ukraine military aid to the Middle East
The Pentagon is considering whether to divert weapons intended for Ukraine to the Middle East as the war in Iran depletes some of the U.S. military’s most critical munitions, according to three people familiar with the matter, The Washington Post said Thursday. The paragraphs below are quoted from the article.
The weapons that could be diverted away from Ukraine include air defense interceptor missiles, ordered through a NATO program launched last year in which partner countries buy U.S. arms for Kyiv, the three people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe the Pentagon’s sensitive deliberations.
In a statement, a Pentagon spokesperson said the Defense Department would “ensure that U.S. forces and those of our allies and partners have what they need to fight and win” but declined to otherwise comment.
Asked about The Washington Post’s reporting on Thursday, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte did not address whether the military alliance is aware of or concerned about a potential rerouting of U.S. equipment. “This vital U.S. equipment for Ukraine, including interceptors, is continuing to flow,” Rutte told a news conference.
Since the U.S. and Israel launched their attack on Iran on Feb. 28, European capitals have become concerned that Washington is rapidly using up its existing munitions, a pace of fire that could delay their own orders and disrupt deliveries of U.S. systems to Ukraine under PURL, two European diplomats said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe their private concerns.
“They are really burning through munitions, so there are questions now about how much they will keep providing through the deal,” one of the diplomats said.
Among the most in-demand munitions are high-end air defense interceptors, including the Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, systems. The U.S. military has redirected such missiles from other parts of the world, including Europe and East Asia, to U.S. Central Command — which is responsible for U.S. operations in the Middle East — bolstering its defenses against Iranian drone and ballistic missile counterattacks.
These assets are also among the most coveted by Ukraine, which faces a continual barrage of Russian strikes on its cities and infrastructure. One of the people familiar with the Pentagon’s internal calculations said that PURL deliveries were likely to continue but that future packages may be missing air defense capabilities, as the U.S. seeks to replenish its stocks and those of allies in the Persian Gulf.
“The policy debate is how much you give to Ukraine,” a second person said. “This is a real live discussion.”
It was not clear whether U.S. shipments would be delayed and fulfilled later or entirely diverted. The Pentagon can redirect such deliveries in the case of an urgent military need but would need to notify lawmakers, the U.S. official said.
In January, Congress passed $400 million in additional long-term weapons aid to Ukraine, funding a separate program that the Pentagon intended to cut. The Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) contracts U.S. firms to build weapons that are delivered directly to Kyiv, though the orders can sometimes take years to fulfill.
According to a notice that the Pentagon sent to Congress, reviewed by The Post, the Defense Department has used some of the European PURL money for other capabilities that lawmakers had intended to be paid for by American funding through USAI.
It remained unclear, the U.S. official said, whether the Pentagon was using the PURL funding in addition to, or instead of, the money Congress had already passed to deliver such weaponry.
Separately, the Pentagon notified Congress on Monday that it intended to divert about $750 million in funding provided by NATO countries through the PURL program to restock the U.S. military’s own inventories, rather than to send additional assistance to Ukraine, according to two U.S. officials.
The first official said it was unclear whether European countries providing their funds for the initiative to bolster Ukraine understood how the money was being spent.
In other news, Rutte denied the reports of Ukraine-bound weapons under the PURL program to be redirected to the Middle East.
“This crucial U.S. equipment, including interceptors, continues to flow into Ukraine through PURL,” Rutte told a news conference on Thursday.
“Since its launch last summer, PURL has supplied around 75 per cent of all missiles for Ukraine’s Patriot batteries and 90 per cent of the ammunition used in other air defense systems,” he said.
According to European Pravda, Rutte also said he cannot share all details about specific weapons shipments in a news conference.