Zelensky: Ukraine should be part of the alliance's collective defense

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attended the 'NATO Defense Industry Forum' held as part of the 36th NATO Leaders Summit. Volodymyr Zelensky, regarding the ongoing war with Russia, said, "The war has fundamentally changed. These are revolutionary changes in the nature of war. Changes as serious as the introduction of machine guns determining the outcome of wars in World War I, the development of modern tank warfare deeply affecting Europe during World War II, or the invention of missiles. Today, unmanned aerial vehicles and remote warfare technology represent a revolutionary change in war technology," he said.

'THE REALITY OF WAR FORCED US TO THIS'

Zelensky stated that thanks to unmanned aerial vehicles, they could attack deep into occupied territories, saying, "You see how massive Russia's attacks look. These are very similar to what we recently saw in the neighboring region where Iranian forces attacked their neighbors. Different types of attack drones, missiles, and numerous ballistic missiles. We have increased our interception rate against Russian Shahid drones to over 90%. This means thousands of Russian attack drones are neutralized every week. With all due respect, no other country has the capability to defend against attack drones on this scale. The reality of this war forced us to build this. Today, we defend against hundreds of attack drones every day and night. The Ukrainian defense sector is developing this capability even in the midst of a full-scale war. Thanks to the way we build our air defense, we maintain a high interception rate against cruise missiles as well. Thanks to all our partners who continue to provide defense assistance to Ukraine," he said.

'WE SEE EACH OTHER AS RELIABLE PARTNERS'

Zelensky said it was not right for his country to be outside NATO, "If we already have these capabilities, if Ukrainians already know how to fight like this, then it would make sense for these capabilities to be part of the alliance's collective defense. This would make us all stronger. We already see each other as reliable partners. It would be natural to be part of a common security community. Ukraine in NATO is a source of extraordinary defense capability. Meanwhile, we have completely eliminated the idea that Russia has a strategic region. For a long time, Russia believed it had territorial advantage. No one else had a deep region where they could safely keep their military production, military equipment, and everything their war depended on. Unlike Putin, we are not doing this war for pleasure or geopolitics. Russia brought this war to Ukraine, killing our people. It wants to destroy our independence. We are only defending ourselves. We have been defending ourselves since the first day of this war," he said.