Nato leaders remind Ukraine support is not an 'Amazon transaction'

Alliance summit's outbreak of gratitude as Zelenskyy presses for more military aid

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy waits for the start of a meeting with Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz during a Nato summit in Vilnius on July 12, 2023. AP

Maybe it was a spillover from the festive mood in Vilnius, the capital of a small country so pleased with the arrival of the Nato summit that it printed T-shirts proclaiming that no one knew where Lithuania was.

An outbreak of thanks and grateful tributes replaced the more challenging demands of the previous day's negotiations as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held talks on weapons and other security supplies with Nato counterparts.

Only on Tuesday he was calling the talks at the meeting “absurd” as he hit out at the failure to secure a timeline for his country's entry to the alliance and the attachment of conditions to the eventual decision.

Tweets before his arrival confirmed the sometimes prickly encounters Mr Zelenskyy has with his foreign backers.

British defence secretary Ben Wallace told the Nato meeting that he had to tell the Ukrainian leader that he “wasn't Amazon” when handed a list of equipment demands in Kyiv. He told the former comedian that his forthright manner could harm ties with the most generous donors, particularly the US.

“You will sometimes hear grumbles, not from the administration and the American system, but you will hear from lawmakers on the Hill, ‘We’ve given $83 billion worth of whatever and you know, we’re not Amazon.’

"I mean, that’s true. I told them that last June: I said to the Ukrainians when I drove 11 hours to be given [such] a list: ‘I’m not Amazon’,” Mr Wallace said.

“There is a slight word of caution here, which whether we like it or not, people want to see gratitude.”

Within hours Mr Zelenskyy was doing just that as he spoke at a press conference after meeting the Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. He told an American questioner that the US government, Congress and people deserved profound thanks. “You are truly the leaders in support for Ukraine. We really appreciate it,” he said.

Tweets after bilateral meetings also had a change of tone, including one following a talks with prime minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte. “I am grateful for the leadership of the Netherlands in making key decisions of the allies in support of Ukraine, in particular on the creation of an aviation coalition,” he said.

“We agreed to start a training mission for Ukrainian pilots on F-16 aircraft in August this year. We discussed the prospects for attracting new partners to the fighter jet coalition and strengthening Ukraine's air defence. Thank you, Netherlands.”

Similarly Mr Wallace's boss Rishi Sunak was thanked for the UK's support “I am grateful to the prime minister and the United Kingdom for supporting Ukraine's accession to Nato and for participating in providing Ukraine with effective security guarantees for the period before membership in the alliance,” Mr Zelenskyy said.

“I am particularly grateful to the UK for the recent successful holding of Ukraine Recovery Conference in London and the decisions taken to provide our country with long-term financial support, in particular by allocating frozen assets for Ukraine's reconstruction.”

Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, weighed in on the theme as well. “The American people do deserve a degree of gratitude from the United States government for their willingness to step up and from the rest of the world as well.

“The United States of America has stepped up to provide an enormous amount of capacity to help ensure that Ukraine’s brave soldiers have the ammunition, air defence, the infantry, fighting vehicles, the mine-clearing equipment and so much else to be able to effectively defend against Russia’s onslaught and to take territory back as well.”

For Mr Wallace the remarks were tendered as regretfully needed but mindful of the scale of sacrifice Ukraine is going to as it defends its territory from the Russian invasion.

“Your war is a noble war and we see it as you waging a war not just for yourselves but for our freedoms,” he said.

“But sometimes you’ve got to persuade lawmakers on the Hill in America, you’ve got to persuade doubting politicians in other countries that it’s worth it and it’s worthwhile and that they’re getting something for it. Whether you like it or not, that’s just the reality of it.”