Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated on Friday that Washington never truly intended for his country to join NATO.
"United States, they never saw us in NATO ... They just spoke about it, but they never really wanted us," the leader noted during a panel at the Munich Security Conference, explaining that this stance did not change with any administration. He underscored that it would be in the common interest of the alliance and Kiev for Ukraine to join, but even if that is impossible for now, he will work to establish a stronger military force in his country, calling it "NATO at home."
He assessed that even taken together with the NATO brigade in Europe, Kiev's numbers are not comparable to the Russian army, concluding that additional resources would have to be found to finance the military buildup either way.
