From Trump says Ukraine can ‘forget about’ joining NATO as he plans to host Zelensky
This combination of pictures created on November 7, 2024, shows Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky (L) arrives to give a press conference on the sideline of a EU summit in Brussels, on October 17, 2024, and former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) arrives to speak during a campaign rally at the J.S. Dorton Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, on November 4, 2024 (Ludovic MARIN and Ryan M. Kelly / AFP)
US President Donald Trump says Ukraine can “forget about” joining NATO as he prepares to host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for talks.
Trump also says he hopes to soon speak face-to-face with Russian President Vladimir Putin in hopes of reaching an agreement to end the war in Ukraine that began when Moscow invaded in February 2022.
The Republican president declines to detail what concessions he will ask the two sides to make, but he underscores his administration’s position that Ukraine’s aspiration to join NATO, the Western military alliance, is not tenable.
“NATO, you can forget about it,” Trump says. “I think that’s probably the reason the whole thing started.”
