Robert Serry, the first Dutch ambassador to Ukraine, who served from 1992 to 1996, said this in an interview with Ukrinform.

"Perhaps this is the greatest irony of this war and of what Putin started. He made Ukraine ready. Just four years ago, almost nobody believed that Ukraine would be able to stand up to Russia. Let us not forget that Ukraine was then seen almost as a beggar state, constantly asking for help, asking for EU membership, and asking for many other things. Over these years, everything has changed. Today, Ukraine has cards. That is another irony of this war. A year ago, Trump told Zelensky, 'You have no cards.' Today, Ukraine does have cards. With our support, it is not only providing for its own security but also for the security of the Netherlands and of Europe as a whole. This became possible because you managed to transform this war into a new kind of war. In my view, almost miraculously, Ukraine has become one of the leaders in drone warfare – in the air, at sea, and on land. Without that, you would not have survived. And that is precisely your card, because we are talking about the technology of future warfare," Serry said.

According to him, today, Ukrainian technologies are already being used, for example, to help protect American bases in Saudi Arabia from Iranian attacks.

"So Ukraine truly does have cards. But that does not mean that I look at the situation with great optimism. Ukraine has already spent four years living through a war that continues to take people's lives. As you know, I spent an entire month in Kyiv in July, and I saw how dramatically the security situation has changed even in the capital. Unfortunately, this is partly a consequence of Ukraine's own successes. You are striking serious targets inside Russia: energy infrastructure, logistics chains, and other critical facilities. And Putin is responding with massive ballistic missile attacks, targeting virtually any kind of object in Ukraine, including civilians and especially Kyiv."

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Serry described the current situation as a "mutually hurting stalemate" – a situation in which neither side can achieve a decisive victory.

"For a long time now, Ukraine and Russia have been in what conflict theory calls a 'mutually hurting stalemate': a situation in which neither side can achieve victory by force and in which continuing the war imposes unacceptable and increasing costs on both sides. For both Ukraine and Russia, continuing this war has become almost irrational because the price is enormous. Ukraine is unlikely to recover all of its occupied territory by military means, but Russia has also failed to achieve the goals with which it began this war namely, establishing control over Kyiv. It has not even succeeded in fully conquering the Donbas. So what we see is a kind of stalemate: Ukraine gains in some areas, Russia gains in others, but overall the front has become largely stabilized. At the same time, a very brutal air war continues, and it may still influence the eventual outcome, but at a cost that is simply insane for both sides. In such a situation, a third party should step in and say: 'This war must be stopped.' The question is who is capable of doing that. In my view, that party could still be Donald Trump, because he is perhaps the only person who potentially has leverage over Moscow," he said.

He also did not rule out the possibility that U.S. President Donald Trump could make another attempt to bring Russia's war against Ukraine to an end by the end of 2026. At the same time, he stressed that this time Washington should put pressure primarily on Moscow rather than demand territorial concessions from Kyiv.

"I do not want to sound overly optimistic, but I have not entirely lost hope that before the end of the year Trump will try again. You know that he has already tried several times, but in those attempts most of the pressure was directed at Ukraine, with demands for territorial concessions and other compromises. I hope he has learned from those mistakes. There is now a twenty-point plan agreed upon by Europe, Ukraine, and the United States that could serve as the basis for serious negotiations to end the war provided that Trump genuinely presents it to Putin and says, 'Now or never.' I say this also because Trump has started what I regard as another unnecessary war, namely in Iran. Partly because of that, Ukraine is now lacking sufficient Patriot interceptors to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles," Serry said.

According to him, "even if he [Trump] told Zelensky that Ukraine could begin producing those interceptors and other systems itself, that would not solve the immediate problem, because such production would take years. I recently learned that President Zelensky said European countries had supplied only about one third of the Patriot interceptors and other missile-defense systems that Ukraine actually needs. So this is a very serious problem, and it is also a test of Europe's credibility and its ability to continue supporting Ukraine for as long as necessary. We have entered a new and dangerous phase of the war. That is precisely why, in my view, it is even more important to look for a way to avoid a fifth winter of war."

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