By Siobhan Robbins, Europe correspondent
The NATO chief has told Sky News he’s still hopeful a bilateral meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy will happen.
Speaking to me at the opening of Europe’s largest ammunition factory in western Germany, Mark Rutte said Zelenskyy had proven he was committed to the meeting but now it was up to Putin to “play ball” and live up to what he said to Donald Trump in Alaska.
Rutte had joined a delegation of European politicians at a visit to Rheinmetall’s new ammunition factory in Lower Saxony.
The plant, which is the size of five football pitches, will eventually produce 350,000 shells a year.
The 155mm rounds will initially be used to replenish the German military and boost Ukraine’s stock.
“Do you trust President Putin to stick to any deal he agrees?” I asked Rutte.
He said that’s why they needed to keep working on security guarantees and rearming Europe and Ukraine.
In terms of what those security guarantees would involve, he said talks were ongoing because the military implication of any decisions meant it was a complex process.
“It can’t be solved in nine days,” the NATO chief explained, reiterating that the US would be involved.
Standing alongside him was Boris Pistorius, the German defence minister, who I pressed on what Germany would be offering in terms of security guarantees for Ukraine.
“One rule I learned early on in negotiations is never put anything off or on the table before you start,” he said.
He said Germany was considering every contribution it might be able to make in terms of security guarantees but the details would not be made public at the moment.
He said that as Ukraine’s biggest supporter outside the United States, Germany’s role would become even more important in the coming years and that no one would question their commitment to Kyiv.
