Ukraine without NATO membership will require a lot of money from partners to maintain army of 1.3-1.5 mln – Zelenskyy

09:29, 17.02.2025 1 min read

To protect the Ukrainian border, large armed forces are now needed if Ukraine is not a member of NATO, and a lot of money is needed to maintain an army of 1.3-1.5 million, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

"These large armed forces are needed right now, if we are not a member of NATO. And that is why NATO should be in Ukraine. This means that we will need armed forces that would be comparable to the Russian armed forces. And there are one million three hundred, one million five hundred thousand military personnel. That is, we need to have money for this," Zelenskyy said during his participation in the main session of the Munich Security Conference.

"We will need money and also weapons. Also, the package of weapons and missiles that we have written out in our victory plan. And if Putin launches a new invasion, we could use such weapons," Zelenskyy explained.