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BRUSSELS: At its first summits after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, NATO gave President Volodymyr Zelensky pride of place at its table. It won’t be the same this time.
Europe’s biggest land conflict since World War II is now in its fourth year and still poses an existential threat to the continent. Ukraine continues to fight a war so that Europeans don’t have to. Just last week, Russia launched one of the biggest drone attacks of the invasion on Kyiv.
But things have changed. The Trump administration insists that it must preserve maneuvering space to entice Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, so Ukraine must not be allowed steal the limelight.
In Washington last year, the military alliance’s weighty summit communique included a vow to supply long-term security assistance to Ukraine, and a commitment to back the country “on its irreversible path” to NATO membership. The year before, a statement more than twice as long was published in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. A new NATO-Ukraine Council was set up, and Kyiv’s membership path fast-tracked. Zelensky received a hero’s welcome at a concert downtown.
It will be very different at a two-day summit in the Netherlands that starts Tuesday. NATO’s most powerful member, the United States, is vetoing Ukraine’s membership. It’s unclear how long for.
Zelensky is invited again, but will not be seated at NATO’s table. The summit statement is likely to run to around five paragraphs, on a single page, NATO diplomats and experts say. Ukraine will only get a passing mention.
If the G7 summit is anything to go by ...
Recent developments do not augur well for Ukraine.
Earlier this month, frustrated by the lack of a ceasefire agreement, US President Donald Trump said it might be best to let Ukraine and Russia “fight for a while” before pulling them apart and pursuing peace.
Last weekend, he and Putin spoke by phone, mostly about Israel and Iran, but a little about Ukraine, too, Trump said. America has warned its allies that it has other security priorities, including in the Indo-Pacific and on its own borders.
Then at the Group of Seven summit in Canada, Trump called for Russia to be allowed back into the group; a move that would rehabilitate Putin on the global stage.
The next day, Russia launched its mass drone attack on Kyiv. Putin “is doing this simply because he can afford to continue the war. He wants the war to go on. It is troubling when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to it,” Zelensky said.
Trump left the G7 gathering early to focus on the conflict between Israel and Iran. Zelensky had traveled to Canada to meet with him. No meeting happened, and no statement on Russia or the war was agreed.
Lacking unanimity, other leaders met with Zelensky to reassure him of their support.
Questions about US support for Ukraine
Trump wants to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. He said he could do it within 100 days, but that target has come and gone. Things are not going well, as a very public bust up with Zelensky at the White House demonstrated.
Trump froze military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine’s armed forces for a week. The US has stepped back from the Ukraine Defense Contact Group that was set up under the Biden administration and helped to drum up weapons and ammunition.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth skipped its last meeting; the first time a Pentagon chief has been absent since Russian forces invaded in February 2022.
Addressing Congress on June 10, Hegseth also acknowledged that funding for Ukraine military assistance, which has been robust for the past two years, will be reduced in the upcoming defense budget.
It means Kyiv will receive fewer of the weapons systems that have been key to countering Russia’s attack. Indeed, no new aid packages have been approved for Ukraine since Trump took office again in January.
“The message from the administration is clear: Far from guaranteed, future US support for Ukraine may be in jeopardy,” said Riley McCabe, Associate Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a US-based policy research organization.
Cutting aid, McCabe warned, could make the Kremlin believe “that US resolve is fleeting, and that time is on Russia’s side.”
“Putin has less incentive to negotiate if he believes that US disengagement is inevitable and that Russia will soon gain an advantage on the battlefield,” he said.
What the summit might mean for Kyiv
Trump wants the summit to focus on defense spending. The 32 allies are expected to agree on an investment pledge that should meet his demands.
Still, the Europeans and Canada are determined to keep a spotlight on the war, wary that Russia could set its sights on one of them next. They back Trump’s ceasefire efforts with Putin but also worry that the two men are cozying up.
Also, some governments may struggle to convince their citizens of the need to boost defense spending at the expense of other budget demands without a strong show of support for Ukraine — and acknowledgement that Russia remains NATO’s biggest security threat.
The summit is highly symbolic for Ukraine in other ways. Zelensky wants to prevent his country from being sidelined from international diplomacy, but both he and his allies rely on Trump for US military backup against Russia.
Concretely, Trump and his counterparts will dine with the Dutch King on Tuesday evening. Zelensky could take part. Elsewhere, foreign ministers will hold a NATO-Ukraine Council, the forum where Kyiv sits among the 32 allies as an equal to discuss its security concerns and needs.
What is clear is that the summit will be short. One working session on Wednesday. It was set up that way to prevent the meeting from derailing. If the G7 is anything to go by, Trump’s focus on his new security priorities — right now, the conflict between Israel and Iran — might make it even shorter.

MADISON, Wisconsin: Tens of millions of people across the Midwest and East endured dangerously hot temperatures again on Sunday as a rare June heat wave that gripped much of the US was expected to last well into this week.
Most of the northeastern quadrant of the country from Minnesota to Maine was under some type of heat advisory. So were parts of Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana and Mississippi, the National Weather Service said.
Weather service offices throughout the region warned of sweltering and sometimes life-threatening conditions through Wednesday.
“Please plan ahead to take frequent breaks if you must be outside, stay hydrated and provide plenty of water and shade for any outdoor animals,” the service office in Wakefield, Virginia, said on X.
Meteorologists say a phenomenon known as a heat dome, a large area of high pressure in the upper atmosphere that traps heat and humidity, is responsible for the extreme temperatures.
Thunderstorms slam New York State
Twin 6-year-old girls were among three people killed when thunderstorms brought trees down onto homes in central New York before dawn Sunday, according to the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office. Several inches of rain fell over just a few hours, inundating the small town of Kirkland.
A neighbor, Jared Bowman, said he ran next door to help the twins’ mother escape through a window after a giant maple crashed through the roof around 4 a.m.
“She was yelling, ‘Get my kids out!’” Bowman told the Post-Standard.
A 50-year-old woman died when a tree hit a house nearby, sheriff’s officials said. The streets were littered with electrical lines and thousands in the region were without power.
Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency in 32 counties due to the strong storms and forecast extreme heat.
‘I just want to sit in my air conditioning’
Sunday marked the second straight day of extreme heat across the Midwest and East Coast. Heat indexes on Sunday hit 103 F (39.4 C) in Chicago and 101 F (38.3 C) on Saturday in Madison, Wisconsin, turning that city’s annual naked bike ride into a sticky and sweaty affair.
Lynn Watkins, 53, director of Sacred Hearts Day Care in Sun Prairie, a Madison suburb, said that she tried to sit outside to grill but it was so hot she had to go inside. She plans to cancel all outdoor activities at the day care on Monday with highs around 93 F (33.8 C) forecast.
“I can’t stand being outside when it’s like this,” she said. “I just want to sit in my air conditioning.”
The heat index in Pittsburgh reached 105 F, and hovered around 104 F (40 C) in Columbus, Ohio.
Forecasts in Philadelphia called for a heat index of 108 F (42.2 C) on Monday.
Philadelphia declares a heat emergency
The city’s public health department declared a heat emergency through Wednesday evening. Officials directed residents to air-conditioned libraries, community centers and other locations, and set up a “heat line” staffed by medical professionals to discuss conditions and illnesses made worse by the heat.
With temperatures in the mid-80s, Maryland’s Rehoboth Beach was crowded Sunday.
“It’s only going to get worse,” said beachgoer Vak Kobiashvili. “People are trying to get out to the beach before it’s too hot to really even manage to be outside.”
Kobiashvili said even his dog didn’t want to be outside.
“East Coast weather, at least from my perspective, is just very sweaty in the summer,” he said. “It’s that walking through a swamp kind of feeling.”
Forecasters warned the heat index in Cromwell, Connecticut, would reach 105 F on Sunday, which could make life brutal for PGA Tour golfers during the final round of the Travelers Championship. Fans sought shelter under trees and on air-conditioned benches. Many lined up for water at a hydration station near the ninth green.
Karin Skalina, of New York, had been in the sun-soaked bleachers by the eighth green and eventually sought relief on a ventilated cooling bench. “Didn’t work,” she said.
“(We’re) trying to follow the shade,” Skalina said.
Courtney Kamansky, of Newington, Connecticut, came prepared with extra water bottles. Asked if she was able to find shade, she pointed to her umbrella and said, “I bring it with me.”
Heat to persist into the coming week with highest temperatures shifting eastward
Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz got sick Saturday while playing in extreme heat against the Cardinals in St. Louis. Seattle Mariners reliever Trent Thornton, facing the Cubs in Chicago, also fell ill.
The heat is expected to persist this week with the highest temperatures shifting eastward. New York City is expected to see highs around 95 F (35 C) on Monday and Tuesday. Boston is on track for highs approaching 100 F (37.7 C) on Tuesday, and temperatures in Washington, D.C., were expected to hit 100 F on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Mark Gehring, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Sullivan, Wisconsin, said this level of heat is not uncommon during the summer months in the US, although it usually takes hold in mid-July or early August. The most unusual facet of this heat wave is the sheer amount of territory sweltering under it, he said.
“It’s basically everywhere east of the Rockies,” he said, referring to the Rocky Mountains. “That is unusual, to have this massive area of high dewpoints and heat.”