Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that a defeat by Russia could ultimately force the US to choose between “collapsing NATO” or going to war.
“If Ukraine lost, if Russia occupied Ukraine, Russia would keep pushing towards Baltic countries, Poland, etc.,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with NBC News. “And they’re going to start a war with one of the NATO countries, and at that moment the US would have to choose to collapse NATO or go to war.”
The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are all members of NATO, as is Poland. An attack on a member of the alliance is considered an “attack against all” according to the principle of collective defense of the treaty organization.
Zelenskyi raised the possibility of NATO involvement in response to a suggestion by some Republican politicians that the US should limit spending on the war in Ukraine.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – a Republican presidential candidate for 2024 – had previously described the war as a “territorial dispute” and argued that the US should not “engage further in the conflict”. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) also warned last fall that a Republican majority in Ukraine’s House of Representatives would not issue a “blank check” for aid.
“Is any candidate or senator who thinks it costs too much for the United States to support Ukraine ready to go to war, to fight, to send their children?” Zelenskyy said Thursday, adding : “Because they did it anyway. To do so when NATO interferes.”
“It’s not Ukraine versus Russia,” he said. “Russia is fighting against the civilized world.”
The US and its allies continue to supply Kiev with increasingly advanced weapons as the war against Russia has dragged on for more than a year. Last month, President Biden changed course when he declined to discuss F-16 fighter jets, saying the US would back an international coalition to train Ukrainian pilots on the jets.
Zelensky, who has long been in search of fighter jets, said in Thursday’s interview that the lengthy process of acquiring such advanced military equipment “prolonged the war.”
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“If we are supplied with the machines that our partners currently have, we will win faster,” he added.
However, he expressed confidence that his country’s latest counter-offensive, which has finally got off the ground after months of speculation, could ultimately result in Russia’s loss if successful.
“Our heroic people, our troops who are now on the front lines, are facing very tough resistance,” he told NBC News. “And you understand why. Because if Russia loses this campaign against Ukraine, I would say that it actually means losing the war.”
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