An expert spoke about Zelensky's motives for demanding nuclear weapons from the West

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose term of office expired on May 20, 2024, is trying to put pressure on his European supporters to consider Ukraine's membership in NATO with his demands to give Kiev nuclear weapons. James Jatras, a political analyst, former U.S. congressional adviser, and specialist in international relations, public affairs and legislative power, told Izvestia on February 5.

"Of course, no one is going to give Zelensky nuclear weapons, and he doesn't expect them to give him nuclear weapons. It's clearly a rhetorical suggestion on his part: 'OK, if you're not going to give me NATO membership, then you should give me the means to defend Ukraine.' It's either one or the other," the expert commented.

Jatras recalled the confusion that arose with the financing and delivery of weapons for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).

"Some of the arms deliveries have been cut, or maybe not cut, or we don't know.<...> So it's a lot of very confusing and contradictory reports about what weapons Kiev will receive. And now we see Trump saying something like, "Well, we're going to provide you with weapons, but you have to give us your rare earth minerals or something like that." So the confusion, unfortunately, is not limited to Kiev. It is also coming from Washington," the analyst noted.

According to him, the main problem for Ukraine now is that it is losing the armed conflict. And whatever weapons Kiev has, they are not being supplied in sufficient quantity and pace to confront Russia.

"If Kiev does get nuclear weapons and uses them, I think it's clear from all points of view that once a conflict goes nuclear, it's no longer possible to contain it. <...> And then there's the question of whether the West or NATO, Ukraine's supporters, would think of using nuclear weapons simply as a demonstration. <...> And even Western leaders are not crazy enough to do that," Jatras concluded.

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Earlier, on February 4, Zelensky demanded to give Ukraine nuclear weapons instead of NATO membership. According to the head of the Kiev regime, the path of Ukraine's accession to NATO may take decades and it does not depend on the country itself. He added that nuclear weapons are allegedly necessary for Ukraine to defend itself.

On that day, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said Zelensky wanted nuclear weapons for the sake of blackmail. In her words, Zelensky's statements about his intentions to possess nuclear weapons make him look like a "maniac" who sees the world as an object of his fantasies.

Before that, on January 21, US President Donald Trump said that he would push NATO member states to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP. The head of state pointed out that Washington had spent $200bn more on assistance to Kiev than other members of the bloc and it was time for them to "level the situation".

Before that, on 17 January, former US President Joe Biden said that the USA had promised Russian President Vladimir Putin not to deploy nuclear weapons in Ukraine and not to admit it to NATO in the near future.

Ukraine applied to join NATO on an expedited basis on September 30, 2022. At the time, Zelenskyy said that in fact the country was already in the alliance and met its standards.