Ukrainian Defence Minister responds to rumours of proposals to exchange Ukraine's occupied territories for NATO membership

Rustem Umierov, Ukrainian Defence Minister, says he has not heard of any proposals from Ukraine's partners to exchange the occupied territories for NATO membership.

Source: Rustem Umierov in a comment to a Radio Svoboda (Liberty) correspondent on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels on 18 October

Quote from Rustem Umierov: "No, I have not heard such a thing. If I did, I would definitely… do very bad things."

Details: Earlier, there were media reports about possible proposals from the West to Ukraine to exchange the territories occupied by Russia for joining NATO. In particular, NATO Secretary General's Chief of Staff Stian Jenssen expressed such an idea in August 2023.

Background:

• On 16 October, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented his Victory Plan to the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament), which consists of five points and three secret appendices. In particular, the first point of the plan is to invite Ukraine to join NATO immediately.
• On 16 October, US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith said that NATO had no plans to invite Ukraine "in the short term". However, this was the first point of Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Victory Plan.
• NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that Ukraine will eventually become the Alliance's 33rd or 34th member.
• Zelenskyy stressed that Ukraine would not accept territorial concessions to end the war.

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