Zelenskyy: Ukraine to become member of NATO after victory in this war
Ukraine will become a member of NATO after the victory, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during a visit with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to the National Defense University.
"We will be in NATO only when we win. I do not think that we will be accepted into NATO during the war. For some, this is a risk from NATO members, for others it is just skepticism because of this. And, of course, the level of Ukraine, which is going through a full–scale war, I think that no one will raise [the issue] of compatibility with NATO, the level of the military," he said.
"The issue of NATO is a majority issue, and the majority is a political issue. In order for Ukraine to be politically accepted into the Alliance, victory is needed for this," Zelenskyy said.
At the same time, he noted that "one of the reasons why this war is going on is because we have not been in the Alliance before." "And Russia has worked very hard with our current partners. They had a dialogue, it did everything so that Ukraine would not be accepted not only into NATO, but also into the European Union, so that Ukraine simply would not develop. And so that it is not cut off from the influence of the Russian Federation. Therefore, in order to break away from this influence, one needs to protect its independence with the ‘victory’ result,’" Zelenskyy said.
