Despite the fact that President Donald Trump said Ukrainian leaders could join the military alliance, Ukrainian President Voldy Zelensky has not stepped back from seeking Ukrainian NATO membership.
Still, Zelenskyy is committed to securing his country’s NATO membership, and he said on Sunday that he will step down as president if it means NATO has adopted Ukraine. Zelenskyy repeated his position on Wednesday, telling the BBC that he “want to find something similar, or something similar.”
“If you don’t get security guarantees, there’s no ceasefire. Nothing works.
Zelensky is scheduled to visit the White House on Friday, and Trump told reporters Thursday that peace talks are in the final stages to end the war between Ukraine and Russia. Still, no deals were secured, and Trump hesitated to discuss plans for the region’s peacekeeping forces until signing.
Trump says that the trade in rare earth minerals in Ukraine will lead to a “sustainable” future between us, Ukraine
Ukrainian President Voldy Mee Zelensky is scheduled to visit the White House on February 28, 2025 (Pia Markotakka/Getty Images)
Trump on Thursday believes Russian President Vladimir Putin will protect the end of the peace deal, but some experts argue that Zelensky is pushing Ukraine to become a member of NATO.
Article 5 of the NATO Convention provides that if a member state is attacked, it is considered an attack on all NATO members and requires other NATO countries to take action, including the use of the military.
Peterraf, senior fellow and director of the European and Eurasian Centre for the Hudson Institute think tank, said Ukraine will be bigger than Russia with support from the West.
“Putin will have to think carefully about the resumption of war if the major Western countries believe they have an obligation to protect Ukraine,” Raff said in an email to Fox News Digital on Thursday. “Of course, bringing Ukraine to NATO would put American (and European) skin and reliability in the game. It explains Trump’s hesitation and even resistance to such a concept.”
Raf said that if NATO membership is not possible, Zelensky’s “fallback position” is to secure support from the Western Army and promote a ceasefire. For example, British Prime Minister Kiel Starmer announced on February 16 that Britain is ready to send troops to Ukraine if necessary to ensure peace between Ukraine and Russia.
Trump says the mineral trade will be negotiated with Zelensky and there will be a meet scheduled for Friday
British Prime Minister Kiel Starmer, left, President Donald Trump will meet in Washington on February 27, 2025 (Carl Court/Pool Photo via the Associated Press)
“If everything else fails, Zelenskyy may have to settle for ongoing funding and military aid,” Raff said. “However, he has no intention of negotiating with himself, so he continues to assert public security assurances.”
John Hardy, deputy director of the Russian Program Foundation of the Democrat Defense Foundation, said another conflict between Russia and Ukraine is likely, with the “difficult truth” that negotiations from the Trump administration “will not resolve the fundamental issues that are at the crisis of this war.”
“Putin’s goal is not just to seize more territory in eastern Ukraine,” Hardy said in an email to Fox News Digital. “He is determined to make Ukraine itself a vassal state and rewrite the broader security orders of Europe.”
As a result, Hardy said that Ukrainian NATO membership would provide the best option to maintain Ukraine’s security against Russian invasions. That’s no from Trump, but Hardy said it needs to be clear how much support the US can provide for European troops, which provide postwar security presence in the region.
For example, priority told reporters on February 17 that “US security guarantees are the only way to effectively stop Russia from attacking Ukraine again, so we need a US backstop.”
“The Trump administration needs to clearly provide Europe with what the US can expect,” Hardy said. “Ukraine also needs a continuous supply of military aid from the West, including the US, but there are ways to reduce the burden on American taxpayers, such as the use of frozen Russian assets.”
Even as we try to end the war in Ukraine, the war of Trump and Zelensky’s words gets hot
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said when he meets President Donald Trump he will discuss the future of US aid to Ukraine. (Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images)
Zelenskyy told reporters Wednesday that he was ready to broach “a very important question” with Trump during his visit on Friday. According to the Diplomatic Council, the parliament has allocated $175 billion since 2022 to aid Ukraine.
To recover some of these costs, Trump said Zelensky is expected to sign a rare earth mineral trade that will allow the US and Ukraine to partner with the development of resources such as oil and gas.
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The agreement will allow the US access to Ukraine’s minerals and help Ukraine rebuild from the war, Trump said.
“We’re going to sign an agreement that’s very important for both parties, because it really brings us into that country,” Trump told reporters Thursday. “There are a lot of people working there, so in that sense, that’s a very good thing.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Diana Stancy is a political reporter for Fox News Digital, covering the White House.
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