BRUSSELS — On Thursday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared details of a recent discussion with former U.S. president Donald Trump, regarding Ukraine’s lack of nuclear weapons and its changing relationship with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
“In a conversation with Donald Trump, I told him, ‘We’ve found ourselves in this situation, so what’s the way out? Either Ukraine will have nuclear weapons, and then it will be our defense, or we need to have some kind of alliance. Apart from NATO, we don’t know any effective alliances today.’“
Zelenskyy also cited the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, in which the U.S., Russia, China and several other nations guaranteed Ukraine’s security on the condition that it surrender its nuclear weapons. Zelenskyy seemed to be revisiting this old agreement, however, saying that “We choose NATO, not nuclear weapons.”
According to Zelenskyy, Trump responded to him by saying, “You have fair arguments.”
Ukraine’s entrance into NATO is the first plank of Zelenskyy’s new “Victory Plan”, shared with the leaders of several European countries on Thursday.
