Ukraine’s Watershed

This month’s NATO Summit provided a global platform for US President Donald Trump, who mixed his usual bravado with bluster but made significant announcements about the two major wars that are underway. Trump dealt a devastating blow against Iran, then pledged badly needed Patriot missiles for Ukraine to help repel Russia’s air attacks against civilians. NATO is not directly involved in either war and has operated for years like a dysfunctional family, not a united front against Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran. But Trump’s tantrums have pushed members to spend more and support Ukraine militarily.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. This week, Trump claimed there was “love and unity” among leaders at the summit. The gathering was organized by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte – an unabashed Trump fan – who said: “I just like the man. I think what he is doing for NATO is great news… because of the Russians’ threat, and we see what the Russians are doing in Ukraine.” Like him or not, Trump forced Europe to do what it should have done for decades, which is to militarize to defend itself against Moscow. If that had been done years ago, Russia would not have invaded Ukraine. Instead, European negligence has caused years of brutal warfare. These days, Rutte likes to describe NATO as the defender of one billion people “against the Russian threat, the massive Chinese build-up, and the fact that Russia, China, North Korea, Iran work together.” But – in fact – Ukraine is the defender of Europe as well as NATO against the Russian threat, and finally Trump understands that. Other Topics of Interest The Ankara NATO Summit: A Minor Respite for NATO Trump’s Ankara appearance shook NATO’s unity to the core, whatever the final communiqué says. It’s time now for Europe to build its own defense with Ukraine’s military among the best it has. This is why Trump agreed to license America’s Patriot anti-ballistic missile defense system to Kyiv – a deal which is a gamechanger, especially in tandem with Ukraine’s plan to unleash its own, hugely powerful ballistic missiles against targets inside Russia in the coming weeks. Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the lead-up to this summit, has purposely pummeled Kyiv and other cities with his powerful ballistic missiles targeted at civilians and cultural sites. Only Patriots can impede such missiles, and these defense systems are now in short supply due to long production times, costs, and the fact that inventories have been used up by Ukraine, Israel, allies, and the Pentagon to protect against Russian and Iranian ballistic missiles. The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post. Reproduced with permission. Read the original version of this article here. The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post. Diane FrancisDiane Francis is an award-winning columnist, bestselling author, investigative journalist, and television commentator. She writes twice weekly at https://dianefrancis.substack.com/ and is Editor at Large with the National Post and Postmedia newspapers writing twice weekly. She is Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, Eurasia section, in Washington DC. She has written pieces for the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Daily Beast, Politico, Miami Herald and the New York Post. In addition she is a Distinguished Professor at Ryerson University's Ted Rogers School of Management and has been a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University’s Joan Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. In 1991, she became Editor of Canada's Financial Post, the first woman editor of a national daily newspaper in Canada, a position she held until the paper was sold in 1998.