Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is still “forcefully” pushing for Ukrainian NATO membership despite the Trump administration rejecting the idea, POLITICO reported on Tuesday.
Zelensky is in The Hague for the NATO summit and is set to hold a meeting with President Trump on Wednesday. The Ukrainian leader met with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Tuesday, who repeated the line that Ukraine is on an “irreversible path” to NATO membership, echoing an alliance statement from last year’s summit in Washington.
But President Trump and his top officials have ruled out the idea of Ukraine joining NATO as part of any future peace deal with Russia since one of Moscow’s main motives for invading Ukraine was the country’s alignment with the Western military alliance, a fact acknowledged by the previous NATO chief, Jens Stoltenberg.
Standing alongside Rutte, Zelensky said that the “direction is not changing,” referring to Ukraine’s path toward NATO membership. The Ukrainian leader also pushed the idea of Ukraine joining NATO in an interview with Sky News, claiming it would benefit the Western alliance despite the obvious risk of direct war with Russia, which could quickly turn nuclear.
“It is an advantageous proposal for NATO today to have an ally like Ukraine, with NATO weapons, with new technology,” he said. “We have no secrets, and experienced people with 10 years of different types of fighting.”
The NATO summit comes as there’s no sign of any progress toward a peace deal in Ukraine, and fighting continues to rage across the frontline, Russian strikes continue to pound targets across Ukraine, and Ukrainian drones are being fired into Russia on a daily basis.
Russian strikes hit the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Tuesday, killing 17 people, according to local officials. Russian officials said 20 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russian territory overnight, and two people were wounded in the attack.
