Russian President Vladimir Putin has reignited fears of a wider European conflict by threatening to annexe the entirety of Ukraine, following a fresh pledge of $35 billion in military aid to Kyiv by NATO member states and allies.
The Kremlin’s warning comes in the wake of the NATO summit held earlier this week in The Hague, where leaders reaffirmed their commitment to Ukraine’s defence amid Russia’s protracted military campaign.
“As of now, the EU and Canada have promised to provide $35 billion in military aid to support Ukraine's war with Russia,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte confirmed, adding that the cumulative aid this year may have already reached $40 billion—surpassing last year’s total of $50 billion.
Most of the pledged support, Rutte explained, would go to the United States, as Ukraine lacks a robust air defence system capable of intercepting Russian air strikes.
In April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sought to acquire US-made Patriot air defence systems to bolster the country's resilience against aerial attacks. However, during talks in The Hague, US President Donald Trump downplayed the prospects of securing additional Patriot systems, stating: “Those systems are very hard to get… we have been trying to acquire them as well. Besides, we supply them to Israel.”
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Meanwhile, the Kremlin issued a conditional ceasefire proposal. “Russia has a ceasefire conditional on Ukraine’s allies stopping supplying weapons to Kyiv,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday. He further warned that continued arms transfers to Ukraine could provoke broader hostilities, potentially involving European Union member states.
President Putin’s annexation threat, delivered at the Saint Petersburg Economic Forum on 20 June, drew international condemnation. “I have said many times that the Russian and Ukrainian people are one nation. In this sense, all of Ukraine is ours,” Putin stated.
He concluded his address with a chilling citation of an old Russian saying: “Wherever a Russian soldier steps, it is ours.”
The response from Kyiv was swift and unambiguous. “Wherever a Russian soldier steps, he brings only death, destruction, and devastation,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha declared the next day.
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