Zelensky spoke at a NATO summit via video link on Wednesday. He warned the gathered leaders that they either had to provide Ukraine with the help it needed to defeat Russia or “face a belated war between Russia and you.” He demanded more modern artillery systems. He also complained that NATO has not fully embraced Ukraine. He asked: “Was not our contribution to the defense of Europe and of culture as a whole insufficient? What else is needed? “ THIS IS AN INFORMATION UPDATE. The previous story of the AP follows below. MADRID (AP) – NATO leaders on Wednesday sought to put into action an urgent sense of purpose triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – and to repair any cracks in their unity to overcome what the alliance leader called since World War II. Russia’s invasion of its neighbor disrupted European peace and prompted NATO to drop troops and weapons into Eastern Europe on a scale not seen since the Cold War. Alliance members have also sent billions in military and civilian aid to Ukraine. The meeting of the 30 NATO leaders in Madrid will directly listen to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is likely to ask them to do even more when he speaks at the rally via video link. And NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg acknowledged that the alliance was “in the midst of the most serious security crisis we have faced since World War II”. US President Joe Biden, whose country supplies most of NATO military power, said the summit would send “an unmistakable message … that NATO is strong and united”. “We are going up. “We are proving that NATO is more necessary now than ever,” Biden said. It announced a strong boost to the US military presence in Europe, including a permanent US base in Poland, two more Rota-based naval destroyers in Spain and two more F35s in the United Kingdom. But pressure from NATO allies has also emerged as the cost of energy and other basic goods skyrocketed, in part due to war and harsh Western sanctions on Russia. There are also tensions over how the war will end and what, if any, concessions Ukraine needs to make to stop the fighting. Money could also be a sensitive issue – just nine of NATO’s 30 members currently meet the organization’s target of spending 2% of Gross Domestic Product on defense. The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose country achieved the goal, urged NATO allies to “dig deep to restore deterrence and secure defense over the next decade.” The war has already caused a large increase in NATO forces in Eastern Europe, and the Allies are expected to agree at the summit to increase the Alliance’s rapid reaction force almost eightfold, from 40,000 to 300,000 troops by next year. The troops will be based in their home countries, but will be dedicated to specific countries on the east side of NATO, where the alliance plans to build up stockpiles of equipment and ammunition. Stoltenberg said NATO was undertaking “the greatest overhaul of our collective defense since the end of the Cold War”. The leaders will also announce NATO’s new Strategic Concept, a set of priorities and objectives once a decade. The latest such document, in 2010, called Russia a “strategic partner.” Now the alliance is going to declare Moscow its number one threat. The document will also set out NATO’s approach to issues ranging from cybersecurity to climate change – and China’s growing economic and military reach. For the first time, the leaders of Japan, Australia, South Korea and New Zealand are attending the summit as guests, reflecting the growing importance of Asia and the Pacific. Stoltenberg said China is not a rival to NATO, but poses “challenges to our values, our interests and our security.” Biden was scheduled to have a rare meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on the sidelines of the summit, focusing on North Korea’s nuclear program. The summit began with a problem to be resolved, as Turkey agreed on Tuesday to lift its opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO. In response to the invasion, the two Scandinavian nations abandoned their long-standing non-aligned status and applied to join NATO as protection against an increasingly aggressive and unpredictable Russia – which shares a long border with Finland. NATO is operating by consensus, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to block the Scandinavian couple, insisting they change their stance on Kurdish rebels Turkey considers terrorists. After urgent high-level talks with the leaders of the three countries, Stoltenberg’s secretary general said the impasse had been cleared. Turkey hailed Tuesday’s agreement as a triumph, saying the Scandinavian nations had agreed to crack down on groups Ankara sees as threats to national security, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which is also considered a US and EU terrorist group. Syria. extension. He also said they had agreed “not to impose an embargo on the defense industry” in Turkey and to take “concrete measures to extradite terrorist terrorists”. Stoltenberg said the leaders of the 30-nation alliance would formally invite the two countries to join on Wednesday. The decision must be ratified by all individual nations, but he said he was “absolutely confident” that Finland and Sweden would become members. Stoltenberg said he expected the process to be completed “relatively quickly”, but did not set a time for it.

Associated Press writer Zeke Miller in Madrid contributed.

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