Next, the NATO chief Mark Rutter has
told Sky News it's up to Russia's
president to live up to his words and
come to the negotiating table with
Vladimir Zilinski to end the war in
Ukraine. He was speaking to our Europe
correspondent Siobhan Robbins at the
Ryan Matal artillery plant in Germany.
Have a listen.
>> How confident are you that this
bilateral conversation between President
Putin and Zalinski will happen? And how
much would you be able to trust Putin to
keep to any deal?
>> It was up to Vladimir Putin to also play
ball uh and live up to what he told the
American president that he was ready to
sit down with President Zalenci. But so
far the date has not been said at least
not in the last 2 hours. I've not
checked my phone. I guess has not
happened. Let's hope that it will happen
as soon as possible. And then when it
comes to trusting Putin, yes or no, this
is exactly why we have the discussion
about security guarant. And I completely
agree with the vice chancellor and the
defense minister. The first layer for
Ukraine to defend itself will be the
Ukrainian armed forces. That is the
base. That is the first layer that will
be extremely important. NATO is
involved. There are many NATO allies
involved there building Ukrainian armed
forces going forward after a long-term
ceasefire/ hopefully even better than
peace. And there will be a second thing
which has to do with these security
guarantees. And the US since two weeks
two weeks ago the American president
telling his European colleagues US will
be involved. That debate has fully
started as I said last Monday. It's now
running for 9 days. Of course that is
detailed. That is difficult not in terms
of the politics but in terms of all the
military implications and that's exactly
why you cannot solve that in nine days.
It will take some more time but it will
be an important element next to
absolutely building Ukrainian armed
forces.
>> It was Siobhan asking that question of
Mark Russer and Siobhan joins me now.
Not the best sound on that answer
Shiobhan but we definitely got a flavor
of it. that Mark Rut is nothing if not
confident and we've seen how he has uh
tried to get Donald Trump on side more
recently certainly using flattery uh
there any sense that Putin is listening
to this though
I think that as you say that answer was
really directed at Europeans and the US
they know that President Putin is really
an entity into himself and from the
conversations that we've been having
since the meetings uh in both Alaska and
DC. I think fewer and fewer people in
Europe believe that a bilateral meeting
is going to happen between President
Zalinski and President Putin anytime
soon. But I think what was clear from
Mark Rutter's language were several
things. One that the focus of him as the
NATO chief, his NATO allies, the
Europeans, the Americans, Ukraine is
that Europe has to rearm. It has to
rearm quickly in order to offer itself
security going forward and also to help
support Ukraine. And where I am at the
moment, this Rin metal plant, this is
open today, it's the biggest ammunition
factory in Europe and it's specifically
been opened as a response to Russian
aggression. Now, what they're going to
make here are these 155 mm shells.
They're the ones that Ukraine relies on
so heavily. Now, initially, this will be
for the German military. Um but as the
second biggest backer of Ukraine,
Germany, they will probably sell some on
to Ukraine. So I think the focus is
continuing to support Ukraine. Um also
pushing back on Putin and saying
President Trump came to you in good
faith. So flattery again there for
Trump. You need to step up and fulfill
what you said. And then underlining a
little bit more detail about these
security guarantees that we've been
talking about so much. Saying that the
conversations are happening while in the
public we might feel like nothing's
going on. He said they have been having
these high level meetings. They're
important. They're at a military level
but they're also complicated. In his
words, this can't happen in 9 days. And
the other person I managed to grab a
quick question with was Germany's
defense chief. As I was saying, Germany
the second biggest supporter of Ukraine.
So they're a big deal in this
conversation. And I asked him, what
would Germany specifically be able to
offer to Ukraine? And once again, he was
very cautious in his answer. He said to
me he learned a long time ago that in
negotiations, you don't say what's on or
off the table before you start those
negotiations, and they wouldn't be
making the details public. However, they
said they were discussing every
possibility about what they could give
Ukraine to support them in the future
and that that no one could doubt
Germany's commitment to Ukraine. And I
think that's the message coming from
here. NATO, Germany, Ukraine's allies
are still behind it.
>> Siobhan and Untilus for us this evening.
Thank you very much indeed.