Zelenskiy says Russia may attack NATO countries next year
- 14 February, 09:40
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned that Russian leader Vladimir Putin is preparing for war against other NATO countries next year. Addressing the Munich Security Council on Friday, Zelenskiy said Putin is preparing to station around 150,000 troops in neighbouring Belarus that could be used against NATO countries.
“This year, Russia will prepare 15 divisions for training and strengthening the situation in the Belarusian direction. It will be 100,000-150,000 people," he said.
"They [Russia] can go forward to Ukraine or they will go to Poland or to Baltic. All I've got from intelligence is that he's preparing the war against NATO countries next year,” Zelensky warned. He stated that providing security guarantees to Ukraine was the way to stop Putin.
Zelenskyy is in Munich, where he will hold talks with the US vice-president, JD Vance as well as US secretary of state Marco Rubio. The war in Ukraine is on to of the agenda of the summit.
Zelenskiy’s dire warning about Putin’s possible plans, comes days after US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin agreed over a phone conversation to set up negotiations to end the nearly three-year-war in Ukraine. Trump told reporters in White House on Thursday that he believed Putin’s assurances that he wanted peace. Trump also blamed Ukraine’s NATO aspiration as the reason behind the ongoing war, while criticizing Joe Biden for saying Kyiv could join the North Atlantic alliance. Trump’s remarks reflected a major foreign US policy shift and raised concerns in Ukraine and its Western allies.
