Zelensky reveals plan if Ukraine not admitted to NATO

Zelensky reveals plan if Ukraine not admitted to NATO

“If we are not in NATO, or not yet in NATO, […] we must have an army that is capable of protection, and a matching number of Ukrainian soldiers. I’m just telling you the numbers. This will be an army of 1.5 million people,” he said.

According to Zelensky, today’s Ukrainian army is about half this size. This bigger army will cost more money to maintain – $60 bln – Zelensky added.

Earlier, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told Breitbart News that Ukraine is unlikely to be made a part of NATO today, saying instead that it could take 25 years for this to happen. On February 12, he argued at a regular meeting of the Western contact group in Brussels that a return to Ukraine’s 2014 borders was unrealistic. He also effectively ruled out the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO. Later, US President Donald Trump said that Hegseth’s statements accurately reflected Washington’s position. He also pointed out that the West”s efforts to pull Kiev into NATO, particularly the repeated statements by former US President Joe Biden, were among the reasons why Russia had launched the special military operation in Ukraine.

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