
Spurred by Russia's aggressive military build up and Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, NATO leaders met Wednesday to agree a significant boost in defense spending. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could only look on from the sidelines.
Ukraine, which has been at war with Russia since Moscow's illegal invasion in 2022, has been front and center at recent NATO summits, but as the alliance's annual leaders' meeting opened in The Hague, Zelenskyy was not in the room.