This year’s NATO summit in Ankara is not like the others. Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Olga Stefanishyna, says the reason is simple: the alliance can no longer defend itself without Ukraine.
“It’s not about the political consensus or the membership,” she told Foreign Policy in an interview published on the eve of the summit. “It’s just simply the obvious fact that the NATO collective defense is no longer possible without Ukraine.“
The summit in Ankara, opening Tuesday, comes at a pivotal moment. Russia has escalated its air war, killing at least 20 in Kyiv on Monday with ballistic missiles that Ukraine’s depleted Patriot systems could not stop. President Trump is expected to meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, with a call to Vladimir Putin to follow.
Stefanishyna laid out three priorities for Zelenskyy at the summit: new air defense capabilities, defense industrial cooperation, and a trilateral discussion with Trump on peace efforts.
A shift in Washington
The Trump administration’s rhetoric on Ukraine has fluctuated wildly, from criticizing NATO as “ridiculous” to holding direct calls with Zelenskyy on the 250th anniversary of US independence. Stefanishyna downplays the noise.
“We’re not assessing our relations based on specific ups and downs in public communication,” she said. Ukraine’s battlefield capabilities, she argued, “change the game and change the rhetoric.“
She sees “inspiring momentum” in Washington for creative approaches to ending the war. Trump now has “much more clarity in terms of Russia” after failed normalization efforts, she said. Ukraine is pushing for a dedicated institutional framework, like the Iran deal team inside the White House and State Department, for Ukraine policy.
“When it happens, I’m sure it will not be a long time before we’ll be able to see the real results,” Stefanishyna said.
Drone strategy as leverage
Ukraine’s deep drone strikes into Russia, hitting oil refineries, military facilities, and logistics hubs, are central to Kyiv’s strategy. Stefanishyna described them as “long-range sanctions” aimed at widening the circle of Russians who feel the war.
“The fact that so many people across all the territory of the Russian Federation have experienced being under attack means that the circle of people in Russia who will be decision-makers is widening beyond President Putin,” she said.
Putin has acknowledged fuel shortages from the strikes but remains undeterred. Stefanishyna rejected the idea that escalation risks should constrain Ukraine.
“The losses for the Russian military are over 1 million people. What could be worse? There’s no way to normalize what is happening right now,” she said.
She cited 20,000 children kidnapped by Russia, thousands of POWs tortured, 2 million people under occupation, and 6 million displaced.
Peace talks: stalled but not dead
Dialogue continues with Russia on prisoner releases and military-to-military channels. But there is no current momentum for high-level mediation trips to Moscow. Zelenskyy discussed a trilateral meeting format with Trump at the G-7 and wrote a letter to Putin, but a Russian invitation for a potential envoy visit was recently recalled.
“It’s very clear now who’s the impediment to the process,” Stefanishyna said.
On the question of territorial compromise, she was direct: “My president has clearly stated that stopping on the existing line [of conflict] is one of the options on the table.“
What Ukraine needs now
The immediate ask at Ankara is air defense. Monday’s strike, in which Ukraine shot down none of 23 Russian ballistic missiles, made the case viscerally. But Stefanishyna framed the need as structural, not just tactical.
“The capability of Ukraine to defend itself is the capability of NATO to keep on defending its peaceful borders,” she said.
The summit is expected to produce a European commitment of roughly 70 billion euros a year in military aid for Ukraine and a first-ever declaration on “burden shifting” toward European allies. But Ukraine needs Patriots, not pledges, and those are still sitting in allied stockpiles.