This week, Russian forces have advanced inside the city of Toretsk in Donetsk region, gaining ground in the east. Ukrainian troops recaptured a 400-hectare forest area in northern Kharkiv region. Russia lost an almost regiment-size force in the operation, Ukraine’s defense intelligence said.
Russia continued to strike Ukrainian cities and towns with missiles and drones every night. It launched no nighttime Shahed drone attacks on Ukraine overnight on Monday for the first time in 48 days. Russia prepares to resume major missile strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure after the winter heating season starts, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksandr Lytvynenko said in public remarks earlier this week.
NATO’s mistakes on Ukraine need to become a lesson, former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a recent interview. Ukraine will become a NATO member, with the exact timeline unknown, NATO’s new Secretary General Mark Rutte said.
This week, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi presented a description of Ukraine’s victory plan to the Ukrainian Parliament and to EU leaders at the European Council summit in Brussels. The plan consists of five main points and three secret addenda.
Ukraine’s survival can only be ensured by joining NATO or having nuclear weapons, Zelenskyi tells Trump
Ukraine has two options to deter further Russian aggression: being a nuclear power — a capability it lost in 1994 when it relinquished its nuclear arsenal — or joining NATO. Speaking to reporters at the European Council summit in Brussels on Thursday, President Zelenskyi said he had conveyed that argument to U.S. Republican nominee Donald Trump in a recent conversation. He added that the Budapest Memorandum failed to offer Ukraine effective security guarantees after it gave up its nuclear weapons.
“Which of these major nuclear powers suffered? All of them? No. Ukraine [did],” Zelenskyi said. “Who gave up nuclear weapons? All of them? No. Ukraine. Who is fighting today? Ukraine,” he added.
Zelenskyi said he told Trump: “That’s where things stand for us. So what’s the way out? Either Ukraine will have nuclear weapons and that will be our protection or we should have some sort of alliance. Apart from NATO, today we do not know any effective alliances.”
“NATO countries are not at war. People are all alive in NATO countries. And thank God. That is why we choose NATO. Not nuclear weapons,” Zelenskyi said.
“I believe that Donald Trump heard me,” Zelenskyi said. “He said, ‘You have a fair argument.’”