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Ukraine is just first line of defence against Russia's plans for aggression, Zelenskyy warns
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is speaking at the Globsec conference in Prague, via a video link.
He warned that the European society and the US have to understand that Vladimir Putin’s war is targeting Nato and “the civilised world,” and Ukraine is “just the very first line” of attack.
“Each line is important, but the most important is the first line, because should it fail, everything will fail,” he said.
Speaking through interpreter, he argued that supporting Ukraine “means security for Europe today.”
“Nato is a reliable ally, but the fact that Ukraine stands there and doesn’t allow the war to spread further, that amounts to strong security guarantees for all of Europe, and so Ukraine must be strengthened,” he said.
I will bring you more quotes from his speech in a moment.
Morning opening: What's Europe's plan for Ukraine?
Jakub Krupa
European foreign ministers – from Italy, France, Germany, Poland, UK, Spain, Ukraine – meet in Rome today for talks in the Weimar+ model.
They will be joined by Nato’s secretary general Mark Rutte and the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas.
Their meeting will be a chance to discuss Europe’s defence and security plans ahead of the Nato summit in The Hague later this month and coordinate their positions on Ukraine, ahead both Nato and G7 summits.
Separately, German defence minister Boris Pistorius is in Kyiv this morning, on his first trip to Ukraine since the new government of Friedrich Merz took office.
But as there is no progress in talks with Russia, and their lethal attacks on Ukraine continue daily, there is a big question looming over the meeting: what is the plan for Ukraine?
Let’s see if we get any clarity on this today.
I will bring you all the key updates here.
It’s Thursday, 12 June 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
