If Ukraine not given strong security guarantees, then Putin will return for complete occupation of former USSR countries – Zelenskyy

17:33, 21.01.2025 1 min read

If Ukraine is not given strong security guarantees such as NATO, then Vladimir Putin may return with an army 10 times larger than in 2022 to occupy all the countries that were part of the USSR, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes.

"If he, Putin, has increased his group to more than 600,000, if there are no strong security guarantees, like NATO, and a military contingent, weapons, then Putin will return, he will definitely return with an army 10 times larger than the grouping that was at the beginning of 2022 [200,000 military] ... And when he returns with this grouping, what will he return for? For the complete occupation of all countries that were once republics in the Soviet Union," Zelenskyy said at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos.

The President noted that Putin would like to put pressure on the United States to keep Ukraine out of NATO, as well as to put pressure on all allies to insist on reducing Ukraine's army by five times.

Zelenskyy stressed that Ukraine and its partners would not allow this to be done.