Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country has intelligence that Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to target Belarus, a NATO country, and warned against the weakening of the alliance.
In an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” Zelensky said his country has intelligence that Putin is planning to conduct a military training operation with 150,000 people, “mostly on the territory of Belarus.” He warned that it could be a similar precursor to the military forces on Ukraine’s border that Putin claimed were for training purposes before launching the full-scale invasion.
“We know for sure that he is preparing that from the territory of Belarus this year. It can happen in summer, maybe in the beginning, maybe in the end of summer. I do not know when he prepares it. But it will happen,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky warned that other NATO countries could be next.
“And at that moment,” Zelensky continued, “knowing that he did not succeed in occupying us, we do not know where he will go. There are risks that this can be Poland and Lithuania because we believe – we believe that Putin will wage war against NATO.”
Zelensky said he thinks Putin is waiting for the NATO alliance to weaken.
“That is why I told you that, ‘What is he waiting for?’ For a weakening of NATO by, for instance, policy of the United States of America, for example, that the United States of America will think to take its military from Europe. Yes, Putin thinks of that. But I will believe that the United States will not take its forces, its contingents from Europe because that will severely weaken NATO and the European continent. Putin definitely counts on that. And the fact that we receive information that he will think of the invasion against former Soviet republics. And forgive me, but today these are NATO countries.”
Zelensky spoke to the Munich Security Conference on Saturday and said, “I really believe that the time has come” to create “the armed forces of Europe.”
His remarks came as U.S. officials seek to negotiate an end to the nearly three-year war between Russia and Ukraine. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier this week that the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO was unrealistic at this time. While Hegseth later softened his stance, Trump’s moves to end the war have rattled critics and allies.
