The key facts

  • Rutte plans to celebrate the end of the conflict with Zelensky in the Swiss Alps and bring red wine.
  • The NATO secretary general emphasized that Europe cannot fully replace the US in military aid to Ukraine.
  • Earlier, Rutte explained his address to Trump as “daddy” as a joke and a translation difficulty.

A feast in the Alps after the conflict ends

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said he plans to celebrate the end of the conflict in Ukraine together with the country's president, Volodymyr Zelensky. He announced this on the Dutch TV program Pauw & De Wit, which is cited by Gazeta.Ru and Life.ru. “We'll get completely drunk somewhere in the Swiss Alps. We'll sit on a mountaintop and drink until we pass out. That's the plan,” Rutte said. He added that he had already promised Zelensky to bring red wine to that meeting.

What else Rutte said

According to the secretary general, he and Zelensky had already discussed how they would spend their time after the fighting ends: the Ukrainian leader himself spoke of his desire to relax in the Swiss mountains, and Rutte offered to take on organizing the feast. He noted that he would like to see Zelensky without his constant security detail. Politicians usually meet at official events: before negotiations involving delegations, they talk one-on-one, discussing not only political matters but also personal circumstances and the difficulties associated with their positions. This is reported by Life.ru.

Support for Kyiv and the secretary general's earlier statements

In the same interview, Rutte touched on the topic of further assistance to Ukraine: he emphasized that the US still plays a key role in military support for Kyiv and, in his view, European countries cannot fully replace Washington in this matter. Thus, the secretary general paired the talk of “celebrating peace” with an acknowledgment of Kyiv's dependence on American supplies — the two statements were made in the same interview but concern different aspects of the situation. Earlier, Rutte also explained his address to US President Donald Trump with the word “daddy”, which he used at the alliance's summit in The Hague in the summer of 2025: he called it a joke, said he had not taken into account the peculiarities of the English language, and cited translation difficulties. The White House later used the nickname in a humorous video, and souvenirs with the same inscription subsequently appeared.