Zelensky counts on US Elections to Push for Ukraine joining NATO

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he hoped the US presidential election on November 5 would give his country a boost in joining NATO and prompt Russia to begin peace talks.

Zelensky stressed in an interview with a group of journalists on Monday, which was requested not to be published until Tuesday, that Moscow’s willingness to negotiate, nearly three years after the start of its invasion of Ukraine, depends primarily on the elections in the United States.

The Ukrainian president stressed that the Russians “will be watching the US policy on this issue… The US, in my opinion, will announce its policy very quickly after the elections,” expressing his belief that it won’t wait until January when the new US president takes office.

The United States, the dominant power in NATO, has provided Ukraine with tens of billions of dollars in vital military and financial aid since the war began in 2022.

Ukraine fears that the victory of former Republican President Donald Trump, who has criticized military aid to Kiev since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, will lead to a halt to this aid.

However, Zelensky didn’t want to delve into this thorny issue, stressing that he had held good meetings with Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris during his visit to the United States in September.

“I had a good meeting with Trump… It was as positive as it could be and I’m satisfied,” he said, adding that he also had a very good meeting with Harris.

The Ukrainian president hopes that Washington will give its approval to a formal invitation for Ukraine to join NATO despite the war with Russia, which is essential for Kiev but on which the United States has so far been reluctant.

“After the elections, we hope for a more positive position from the United States, which, in my opinion, doesn’t want to make major changes during the election campaign”.

Ukraine sees joining NATO as the only guarantee against Russia, which has claimed to have invaded Ukraine to prevent it from moving closer to NATO.

Kiev wants to receive an invitation from the alliance as soon as possible, even though about 20% of its territory is under Russian control, and to officially join the alliance before the end of the war, according to Zelensky.

The invitation to join NATO is the first item in the “Victory Plan” that Zelensky recently presented to his country’s main allies, which provides for the deployment of non-nuclear deterrents on Ukrainian territory.

When presenting the plan to the Ukrainian parliament, Zelensky said it would allow for a just and quick end to the war in 2025, and rejected the idea of ​​giving up Ukrainian territory in exchange for peace with Russia, even though the Ukrainian military is severely under-equipped and under-resourced.

Washington’s approval of Ukraine’s invitation to join the alliance would prompt Germany and other hesitant countries such as Hungary and Slovakia to follow suit, according to Zelensky.

The Ukrainian president said, “The German side doubts the feasibility of our decision to join NATO,” considering that they “fear the Russian reaction”.

“We all have to work hard with the German side, but there is no doubt that the United States has great influence on this issue”.

He stressed that the majority of allies’ support extending an invitation to Ukraine.

On the other hand, Zelensky said that his country isn’t asking its Western allies for nuclear weapons to confront the Russian invasion, after controversial statements on the issue last week.

“We’re not asking to be given nuclear weapons,” Zelensky said.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine agreed to hand over to Moscow Soviet nuclear weapons stored on its territory under a 1994 agreement with Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom known as the Budapest Memorandum.

In return, the signatory countries guaranteed Ukraine’s security.

However, Zelensky said his country had handed over nuclear weapons without getting anything in return.

It should have handed them over in exchange for joining NATO.

Ukraine finds itself in a critical military situation as its forces have been retreating for months on the eastern front and Russia continues to bomb cities due to a lack of air defenses.