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US President Donald Trump has touted the possibility that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin may invade other countries following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine during a press conference at the NATO summit in the Hague on Wednesday.

Trump was asked whether he considered Putin an enemy and if he believed the Russian leader had territorial ambitions beyond Ukraine. “It’s possible”, Trump replied.

“I consider him a person who I think is misguided,” the US president said.

Trump also said Putin called him to offer help in settling the recent Middle East conflict and to act as an interlocutor between the US, Israel and Iran.

“He called the other day (and) said: ‘Can I help you with Iran?’ I said no, you can help me with Russia,” said Trump.

The US president has previously indicated he’s in regular contact with Putin especially over Ukraine.

“I know one thing. He would like to settle. He would like to get out of this. It’s a mess for him. I said: ‘You help me get a settlement with you,’ and I think we’re going to be doing that soon,” Trump told reporters.

Ahead of his second term in the White House, Trump announced he would negotiate an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine within 24 hours, but he told reporters at the NATO summit that he was being sarcastic.

He said the negotiations are “more difficult that anyone had thought”, and that “Putin is more difficult”.

Trump also said he had a “good” meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the margins of the summit.

Trump said he would “see” if the US could supply Ukraine with Patriot air defence systems in future.

All 32 NATO allies agreed to increase spending on defence to 5% of GDP within 10 years at the two-day summit in the Hague.

Trump said this was a “big win” for the US and the West.

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NATO leaders on Wednesday confirmed their commitment to more than double defence spending by 2035 banding words like “crucial”, “momentous” and “quantum leap”, but the summit also exposed rifts over how the US and Europe perceive Ukraine and Russia.

Allies committed to spending 3.5% of GDP on core defence spending to buy military hardware and maintain troops and another 1.5% on defence-related investments. This includes dual-purpose investments that would boost military mobility, cybersecurity, military and civilian cooperation and resilience on critical infrastructure.

US President Donald Trump, who had long called for a 5% target, crowed victory, lauding how “over a trillion (US dollars) a year” will now be spent on defence from Europe and Canada.

The declaration that emerged from the summit is much shorter than the statements that have come out of previous meetings and paints the picture of a united alliance but not all is as it seems.

Here’s what you need to know.

Different interpretations of 5%

“Allies commit to invest 5% of GDP annually on core defence requirements as well as defence-and security-related spending by 2035 to ensure our individual and collective obligations, in accordance with Article 3 of the Washington Treaty,” the NATO declaration says.

But some allies seem to have a different interpretation. Spain and Slovakia for instance, have indicated they don’t plan to raise their national defence budget for now, arguing they can reach their national capability targets by spending less.

Prime Minister Sánchez stressed to reporters after the summit that Spain is “firmly committed to our capacity objectives” and “a serious country that fulfills its commitments”.

Rutte more or less cast doubts on them being able to do so, telling reporters at the end of the summit that the targets were calculated based on the defence planning process during which the capability targets for each country, and estimates of what it would cost to reach them, were set.

Bart De Wever, Belgium’s prime minister, also expressed his scepticism, telling reporters on Wednesday morning before the summit that “if we can do it (reach the capability targets with less than 3.5% of GDP), we will try to do it as well.”

“But NATO is not foolish. If they say it’s going to be 3.5% to get it done, it’s probably true,” he added.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that the targets “should be binding and they should be for all 32 members of the alliance”.

For Trump, Spain’s stance is “terrible”, adding: “I don’t know what the problem is.” He said that he is “going to make them pay twice as much” in other ways.

Allies have agreed to review progress on their spending trajectory in 2029 and possibly set new capability targets depending on the geopolitical situation.

Trump’s commitment to Article 5

Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty is the collective defence clause which states that an attack on one ally is an attack against them all.

Trump has since his reelection castigated European allies for not spending enough on their own defence and suggested the US could choose not to assist an ally under attack if their spending is low.

When asked, as he was flying to the Hague for the summit, whether he remained committed, Trump told reporters: “It depends on your definition. There’s numerous definitions of Article 5.”

“But I’m committed to being their friends (…) and I’m committed to helping them”.

In their summit declaration, all 32 allies, including the US, “reaffirm our ironclad commitment to collective defence as enshrined in Article 5 of the Washington Treaty – that an attack on one is an attack on all.”

Rutte and most European leaders have in public said they have no doubt about Washington’s commitment to European security with the secretary-general saying the US “reaffirmed that today in no uncertain terms”.

Ukraine watered down

For Rutte, one of the “resounding” messages that emerged from the summit was that of the alliance’s “continued support” for Ukraine.

“Our aim is to keep Ukraine in the fight today so that it can enjoy a lasting peace in the future,” he said, also reiterating that the war-torn country is on “an “irreversible path to NATO”.

This formula was introduced in the declaration that came out of the 2024 summit in Washington, in which the word Ukraine appeared roughly 60 times. Allies also stated then that a strong, independent, and democratic Ukraine “is vital for the security and stability of the Euro-Atlantic area”, and “directly contributes to Euro-Atlantic security”.

However, In this year’s declaration, the word Ukraine is mentioned just twice: “Allies reaffirm their enduring sovereign commitments to provide support to Ukraine, whose security contributes to ours, and, to this end, will include direct contributions towards Ukraine’s defence and its defence industry when calculating Allies’ defence spending.”

Sources from NATO allied countries told Euronews they were confident of strong language linking Ukrainian security to NATO security.

This was an area of some discussion in recent weeks as to the strength and relevance of Ukraine in the overall final statement. In the weeks and months leading up to the summit there was even some talk as to whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would be invited to the leaders’ dinner hosted by Dutch King and Queen.

Not inviting Zelenskyy would have been “a PR disaster”, another source told Euronews.

Yet allies – aside from the US – are at pains to explain that the journey towards Ukraine’s membership of NATO has not ended abruptly, but only slowed down.

“There will be a path to NATO membership for Ukraine, but of course once more when conditions allow and when allies agree,” Latvian Defence minister Andris Sprūds said.

“At the moment, allies don’t agree on that specific decision right now, but I am sure and I’m confident that sooner or later this decision will be taken with regard to NATO and also with regard to European Union,” he told Euronews at the Hague.

Sprūds pointed to the deliberately narrow focus on spending at the summit as one reason for the pivot away from Ukraine.

“This is about spending, it is about NATO capabilities.. so by this indirectly or directly we can interpret it, it also underlines the importance of Ukraine,” he said.

Zelenskyy did have a meeting with Trump on the sidelines of the summit with Trump later describing him as “very nice” and saying he “couldn’t have been nicer”.

The two men had a highly contentious meeting in the Oval Office in February.

“He’d like to see it (the war) ended,” Trump also said. “I’m going to speak to Vladimir Putin, see if we can get it ended.”

Russia gets just one mention

US intervention is also behind how brief the mention of Russia is in the declaration, sources have told Euronews.

The document states that allies are “united in the face of profound security threats and challenges, in particular the long-term threat posed by Russia to Euro-Atlantic security”.

Asked about his contacts with Putin, Trump told reporters that “he’d like to settle” his war in Ukraine but and that “it’s possible” he could have designs on other European territories.

“I consider him a person that I think has been misguided,” Trump added.

Non-US sources close to the negotiations had previously said on conditions of anonymity that they were not displeased with the language on Russia and the fact it is the only other country mentioned. This, they said, showed NATO is returning to its so-called “core business”.

The US had in previous years insisted that the Indo-Pacific and China be mentioned.

What happened at today’s NATO summit?

The NATO summit at The Hague is now over and while Ukraine wasn’t the main item on the agenda, the ongoing war with Russia was still discussed.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a series of bilateral talks with foreign leaders, including a meeting with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the summit.

The Ukrainian president said he discussed how to achieve a ceasefire and real peace with Trump, adding the meeting was “substantive” and the pair discussed how to “protect our people”.

He also said the two leaders discussed the possible co-production of drones and that he told Trump “the facts of what is happening on the ground”.

Speaking this afternoon, Trump admitted he and Zelenskyy had previously had some “rough times” but that his Ukrainian counterpart “couldn’t have been nicer” today.

He said he will now speak with Vladimir Putin about the war and “see if we can get it ended”, adding that the Russian leader would “like to get out of this thing” and that the war has “been a mess for him”.

Answering a question about whether Putin has any territorial ambitions beyond Ukraine, Trump said “it’s possible”.

He also said he thinks the Russian president has “been misguided” and adds: “I’m very surprised, actually. I thought we should have settled that easily.”

US considering extra Patriots for Ukraine

At one moment during his remarks, Trump was asked a question about the Patriot missile systems by a woman who revealed her husband was serving in the Ukrainian army.

“That’s a very good question,” Trump said. “And I wish you a lot of luck. I mean, I can see it’s very upsetting to you. So say hello to your husband.”

On the question itself, Trump said he is considering sending more Patriot missile batteries to Ukraine to help Kyiv fend off Russian attacks.

He said the air-defence missiles are “very hard to get” but that “we are going to see if we can make some of them available.”

In other Ukraine news…

What happened at today’s NATO summit?

The NATO summit at The Hague is now over and while Ukraine wasn’t the main item on the agenda, the ongoing war with Russia was still discussed.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a series of bilateral talks with foreign leaders, including a meeting with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the summit.

The Ukrainian president said he discussed how to achieve a ceasefire and real peace with Trump, adding the meeting was “substantive” and the pair discussed how to “protect our people”.

He also said the two leaders discussed the possible co-production of drones and that he told Trump “the facts of what is happening on the ground”.

Speaking this afternoon, Trump admitted he and Zelenskyy had previously had some “rough times” but that his Ukrainian counterpart “couldn’t have been nicer” today.

He said he will now speak with Vladimir Putin about the war and “see if we can get it ended”, adding that the Russian leader would “like to get out of this thing” and that the war has “been a mess for him”.

Answering a question about whether Putin has any territorial ambitions beyond Ukraine, Trump said “it’s possible”.

He also said he thinks the Russian president has “been misguided” and adds: “I’m very surprised, actually. I thought we should have settled that easily.”

US considering extra Patriots for Ukraine

At one moment during his remarks, Trump was asked a question about the Patriot missile systems by a woman who revealed her husband was serving in the Ukrainian army.

“That’s a very good question,” Trump said. “And I wish you a lot of luck. I mean, I can see it’s very upsetting to you. So say hello to your husband.”

On the question itself, Trump said he is considering sending more Patriot missile batteries to Ukraine to help Kyiv fend off Russian attacks.

He said the air-defence missiles are “very hard to get” but that “we are going to see if we can make some of them available.”

In other Ukraine news…

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Authorities in the Czech Republic have detained five teenagers for allegedly being radicalised online by the so-called Islamic State (IS) militant group.

Two of them were charged with terror-related offences over an attempt to set fire to a synagogue last year, officials said on Wednesday.

Břetislav Brejcha, the director of the Czech counterterrorism, extremism and cybercrime department, said most of the suspects were under 18 years old.

They were detained between February and June as a result of an international investigation that began last year.

On 29 January 2024, two of the five tried to set a synagogue on fire in the Czech Republic’s second largest city Brno, Brejcha said, without offering further details.

A man accused of being an IS fighter in a prison in northeastern Syria, 31 January, 2025 AP Photo

Czech media reports from February 2024 said two suspects placed a firebomb in front of the synagogue but that it did not explode.

The charges against the two teenagers include hate-related crimes, promotion and support of terrorism and an attempted terror attack.

They and the other detainees were all involved in online groups recruiting fighters for IS militants in Syria, Brejcha said.

Czech authorities worked with their counterparts in Austria, the UK, Slovakia as well as with the European Union’s law enforcement agency Europol in the case, he added.

Seven raids took place in the Czech Republic and Austria, in which police seized weapons including knives, machetes and axes.

Michal Koudelka, the head of the Czech counterintelligence agency BIS, said the five suspects shared a fascination with violence and hatred against Jews, LGBTQ+ people and others.

They were approached online by Islamic State members and became radicalised, Koudelka said.

“We consider online radicalisation of the youth a very dangerous trend,” Koudelka said, adding that the suspects had not been in touch with the local Muslim community.