Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has reportedly told NATO to let his country join the group or it will get nuclear weapons in a shock ultimatum that Donald Trump allegedly backed.
The leader, 46, declared his bombshell proposal at the EU summit in Brussels – stating either NATO quickly accepts Ukraine into its alliance, or it will once again become a nuclear power, reports Bild.
Zelensky had reportedly planned to present what is being dubbed his ‘victory plan’ to the heads of state and government of the European Union, but instead made the dramatic announcement to stunned reporters on Thursday afternoon.
Speaking to the former American President Donald Trump, 78, some weeks ago, the Ukrainian leader declared: ‘Either Ukraine will have nuclear weapons, and then they will be our defence.
‘Or we will have to enter into some kind of alliance. Apart from NATO, we do not know of any effective alliances today.’
He said Trump had agreed with his proposal before he made the statement at the summit, insisting that a membership to NATO would provide his country with the ultimate security guarantee to protect it from Russia.
Major points of the victory plan include the invitation for Ukraine to join NATO and permission to use western-supplied longer-range missiles to strike military targets deep inside Russia, steps that have been met with reluctance by Kyiv’s allies so far.
‘If we get this sign that we will be in Nato, we will feel that we are not alone,’ Zelensky said.
The Institute for the Study of War in Washington said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking to draw out the war and he believes ‘that Russian forces can outlast western support for Ukraine and collapse Ukrainian resistance by winning a war of attrition’.
Zelensky told EU leaders that his troops must keep battling Russian forces in Ukraine ‘while also bringing the war back into Russia so that Russians can feel what war is like and begin to hate Putin for it’.
The president said he needed to ‘move some partners forward’ on the issue.
‘And I think only with the unity in EU we can move and can move not only EU leaders, we can move other leaders,’ he said.
‘Which of these major countries, among the nuclear powers, were affected by war? All of them? No, only one. Ukraine,’ he continued.
‘Who has renounced nuclear weapons? All of them? Only one. Ukraine. Who is at war today? Ukraine’.
