MOSCOW

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanded on Tuesday nuclear weapons as an alternative to Kyiv joining NATO.

Piers Morgan, a British journalist, published Zelenskyy's remarks on X as a teaser for his upcoming interview. The exact date of his interview publication has yet to be announced by the journal. 

"If these processes (joining NATO) will take years, decades, not because of us, but because of our partners, then we have an absolutely fair question: what will protect us ... during this time, what aid packages, what weapons? Will they give us nuclear weapons? Let them give us nuclear weapons. Will they give us enough missiles to stop Russia, which I doubt? But this (giving nuclear weapons) will help," Zelenskyy’s comments were quoted by the British journal.

If Ukraine is denied membership in NATO, Zelenskyy demanded that Russia return Kyiv's lost territories in the ongoing conflict, claiming that preventing Ukraine from joining the alliance was "the purpose of the military operation."

However, Russia never stated that preventing Ukraine's membership in NATO was the only goal of its military operation.

When announcing the start of a “military operation” in Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin said its goals included the demilitarization and "denazification" of the country, as well as the protection of the civilian population of Donbass from "genocide by the Kyiv authorities."

In Sept. 2022, Putin called the goal of the operation the elimination of the anti-Russian enclave that is being created on the territory of Ukraine and threatens Russia.

Two years later, he declared that the primary goal of the special operation would be the liberation of the Donbass territories, which had become part of Russia following the results of the autumn 2022 referendum.

However, when speaking in June about Russia's conditions for a peace settlement in Ukraine, Putin emphasized Ukraine's nuclear-weapon-free status and refusal to join NATO as key conditions.