As NATO Hopes Fade, Zelensky Has Nukes in Mind
Ukrainian leader has been selling his so-called victory plan to the West
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a press conference that he told Donald Trump during a recent meeting that Kyiv either has to join a strong alliance — like NATO — or become a nuclear power if it has any chance of standing up to Russia.
The 1994 Budapest Memorandum is still a sore subject for the Ukrainian leader. Ukraine once held the world’s third-largest amount of nuclear weapons—about 1,900 strategic warheads, 176 intercontinental ballistic missiles, and 44 strategic bombers, according to armscontrol.org. But Kyiv agreed to transfer them after the U.S. and UK vowed security assurances.
“Which of the big nations, the nuclear nations, suffered? Everyone? No, just Ukraine,” Zelensky said during a press conference, RT reported. He continued: “Speaking to Donald Trump, I told him: ‘What is the way out for us?’ Either Ukraine will have nuclear weapons, and they will serve as protection, or we need to be in some kind of an alliance. We don’t know any effective alliances except NATO.”’
He told reporters that he told Trump that his preference is to join NATO. He said Trump indicated that his desire is justified.
“NATO countries are not at war. People are all alive in NATO countries. And thank God. That is why we choose NATO. Not nuclear weapons,” Zelensky said.
TRENDPOST: The Trends Journal has said since the beginning of the Ukraine War that Kyiv should negotiate to end the conflict because the West does not want a direct war with Russia, but would be more than happy to fight the Russians to the last Ukrainian.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said in April 2023 that he feels a “personal stake” in the Ukraine War because he said he pressured Ukraine to give up its substantial nuclear arsenal.
The U.S. tricked Ukraine with some of the language used in the agreement.