Washington should not take Kiev's NATO membership bid off the table, the Ukrainian leader has insisted

Seeking a swift peace deal to end the Ukraine conflict at the cost of Kiev's "key" demands would be a mistake for the US, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has claimed. He said that this could result in a similar situation for Washington as the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

Zelensky was commenting on statements by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump, who both said they do not see Ukraine joining NATO anytime soon. Last week, Hegseth called Kiev's goals of joining the US-led military bloc and reclaiming all its former territories that have joined Russia "unrealistic."

Trump later described his defense secretary's comments as "pretty accurate," noting Moscow's insistence that Ukraine cannot join NATO.

Russia has repeatedly called the US-led bloc's expansion towards its borders a national security threat, and has named Kiev's NATO ambitions as one of the key factors behind the ongoing conflict.

Zelensky accused the Trump administration of giving up key demands before the start of peace talks, and criticized the US skepticism about Kiev's NATO bid in an interview with the German ARD public broadcaster published on Monday.

"You can't just take that off the table. It doesn't work that way. I don't think anyone is interested in an Afghanistan 2.0," he stated.

The Ukrainian leader urged the US not to repeat past mistakes, adding that there is "experience of what happens when someone ends something without thinking it through and withdraws very quickly." 

The remarks came one day before a meeting between Russian and US delegations in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, where they discussed potential direct talks between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The withdrawal from Afghanistan was planned by Trump during his first tenure, but was carried out by his successor Joe Biden in 2021. The chaotic and hasty pullout led to a quick collapse of the US-backed government in Kabul and a swift Taliban takeover. Biden was roundly criticized for his handling of the operation, in which 13 American service members were killed and thousands of Afghans allied to Washington were left behind.