Developments since Anchorage have not met Putin’s expectations, while a positive mood prevailed at the NATO and G7 summits. This was emphasized by Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Chairman of the Kyiv Security Forum and Prime Minister of Ukraine from 2014 to 2016, during a special KSF discussion titled “NATO Summit in Ankara: Decisions, Challenges, and the Way Forward.”

“The way things are unfolding right now is not the way Putin expected – neither before nor after Ankara. He has lost the momentum,” Arseniy Yatsenyuk noted.

The Chairman of the Kyiv Security Forum called the U.S. president’s decision to grant Ukraine licenses to manufacture missiles for the Patriot systems an important step, one that, however, will take time. “It is a huge deliverable. However, it takes time. And Putin still has an air dominance with the ballistic missiles. That is the reason why we urgently need anti-ballistic missiles and Patriot systems,” he emphasized.

The Chairman of the KSF cautioned against jumping to conclusions about a turning point in the war. “This is a war of attrition. And I won’t exaggerate that we’ve reached a breaking point. Putin, the war criminal, hasn’t changed his plans. So we need to turn the screw on him, to press on him like hell, and impose additional sanctions, to have America in, the NATO in and Russia out,” Arseniy Yatsenyuk noted.

The discussion took place in the Ukrainian capital as part of the new project ‘Kyiv Security Forum: Deep Strike’ – a series of expert discussions on pressing issues and key trends in Ukraine’s security, economy and foreign policy.

Participants in the discussion included Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Chairman of the Kyiv Security Forum, Prime Minister of Ukraine (2014–2016); and Danylo Lubkivsky, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine (2014), Member of the Security Council, Kyiv Security Forum. Joining online were Tanya Hartman, Head, Policy East Team, Political Affairs and Security Policy Division, NATO HQ; Ambassador William Taylor, Distinguished Fellow, Atlantic Council, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine (2006–2009; 2019–2020); Ambassador Kurt Volker, US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations (2017–2019); Marcin Buzanski, Director of the European Office of the Kyiv Security Forum (Brussels). The discussion was moderated by Mark Lobel, a BBC journalist and BBC presenter.

A video recording of the discussion is available in Ukrainian here and in English here.

The Kyiv Security Forum (KSF), founded by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk Open Ukraine Foundation, is Ukraine’s leading international discussion platform on issues of war and peace. Prominent international leaders, politicians, diplomats, experts, activists, and journalists participate in KSF events. The platform operates on several levels simultaneously: keeping Ukraine in the spotlight of the global agenda; expanding our country’s circle of international partners; and building expertise on current security issues.