Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Ukraine either needs to join NATO or obtain nuclear weapons, marking the first time since the Russian invasion that he’s suggested Ukraine should get nukes.
Zelensky made the comments while addressing the EU’s European Council in Brussels, saying he made the argument in a recent conversation with former President Donald Trump.
“In a conversation with Donald Trump I said – this is our situation: What way out do we have? Either Ukraine will have nuclear weapons, which for us will be a defense, or we’ll need to have some sort of alliance, besides NATO. But today we know of no other alliance,” Zelensky said.
“NATO countries today are not at war. NATO countries are not fighting. In NATO countries people are still alive. Thank God. That is why we choose NATO, not nuclear weapons. And Donald Trump heard me. He said you have a just argument,” he added.
Later, at a press conference with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Zelensky downplayed his comments, saying, “We never spoke about … that we are preparing to create nuclear weapons or something like this.”
In his address to the European Council, Zelensky referenced the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, under which Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan agreed to remove all Soviet nuclear weapons from their territory in exchange for security guarantees from the US, the UK, and Russia. While the nuclear weapons were on Ukraine’s territory, they were still under Moscow’s control following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
“Which nuclear states suffered? None except Ukraine… Who gave up their nuclear weapons? All of them? No. Only Ukraine… Who is fighting today? Ukraine,” Zelensky said.
Just a few days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Zelensky said that if consultations with signatories to the Budapest Memorandum didn’t result in concrete security guarantees, then the agreement would be in doubt, comments Russia took as a threat to build nuclear weapons.