Zelenskyy questions future of Ukraine’s army without NATO support

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasizes that security guarantees for Ukraine must include funding and arming its million-strong army. In an interview with Polish media, Zelenskyy rhetorically asks what will happen to Ukraine’s army if the country is not guaranteed NATO membership.

“I have a simple question: if we are not yet in NATO and diplomacy has gone, where will we find the money and weapons to maintain a million-strong army? This is a fact.” Zelenskyy asked during an interview with Polish media and added. “If you don’t have NATO [support], air defence, support, a general fleet, etc., you have to rely on yourself. Today, Ukraine maintains Europe’s largest army. This is not said [to boast] of our advantage. It is that it’s very, very expensive.”

The president stressed that, first of all, Ukraine needs security guarantees for peace, but this requires preventing escalation. He considers that this should be taken into account to prevent Russia from preparing for another attack. Zelenskyy believes that Ukraine needs NATO, weapons, and other support to guarantee its security.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Following his January 15 meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Zelenskyy said that one of the security guarantees could be the deployment of peacekeepers to Ukraine. However, this topic he plans to discuss with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer during his January 16 Kyiv visit.

The president warned that Europe is currently unable to fight Russia without the Ukrainian army. He said the Russian army is larger than the entire EU army: “Bigger, with more weapons, more people and more audacity… Without the Ukrainian army, the EU army has no chances [to win], unfortunately.”

Previously, a political scientist and historian Andreas Umland warned that Russia’s actions in Ukraine could serve as a dangerous template for other revisionist powers, particularly threatening states in the Global South that lack protective alliances similar to NATO or the EU.

Ukraine urges the international community to unite in restoring global security under the UN Charter and strengthen sanctions against Russia to enforce compliance with international law. Following Russia’s initial invasion in 2014, Ukraine has pursued the liberation of its territories within its internationally recognized 1991 borders while developing comprehensive reintegration strategies and policies for all liberated areas.

The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine outlined a timeline for the second Peace Summit.