Ukraine war latest: Zelensky says he told Trump that either Ukraine will join NATO or pursue nuclear weapons.

Key developments on Oct. 17:
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Oct. 17 that he told Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in their meeting in September that Ukraine would either become a NATO member or pursue nuclear capabilities to protect itself.
Zelensky was speaking from Brussels, where he presented his victory plan to EU leaders.
“Either Ukraine will have nuclear weapons, which will serve as protection, or it must be part of some kind of alliance. Apart from NATO, we do not know of such an effective alliance,” Zelensky said that he had told Trump.
“I believe Trump heard me and said that it was a fair argument,” he added.
Zelensky also invoked the Budapest Memorandum, in which Ukraine agreed in 1994 to give up its nuclear arsenal in exchange for security guarantees from Russia, the U.S., and the U.K.
The agreement resulted in Ukraine losing its nuclear shield, Zelensky argued, while other powers that have maintained their nuclear arsenal have not suffered from a full-scale war.
At the same time, Zelensky emphasized that he would choose NATO membership over pursuing nuclear weapons.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Oct. 17 that Ukraine was not pursuing nuclear weapons, clarifying comments he had made previously.
Earlier in the day, Zelensky said that he told Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in their meeting in September that Ukraine needs to be part of NATO, or it would pursue nuclear capabilities to protect itself.
In a press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Zelensky walked back the comments and said explicitly that Ukraine was not seeking nuclear weapons.
“We never spoke about…that we are preparing to create nuclear weapons or something like this,” he said.
Zelensky chided the reporter for asking about the earlier comments and said they were made to describe how the Budapest Memorandum had failed to provide Ukraine with an effective security umbrella.
Zelensky emphasized that, given the failure of the Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine has no other option for effective security besides joining NATO.
“But we don’t do…nuclear weapons,” he emphasized, adding that he would ask for such a narrative not to be propagated.
Following Zelensky’s comments, Rutte reiterated that Ukraine will become a NATO member but did not specify a timetable for when it would join.
North Korea is preparing 10,000 soldiers of different branches and specializations to join Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Oct. 17.
His statement came days after a Western diplomat told the Kyiv Independent that Pyongyang had sent 10,000 soldiers to Russia. Zelensky said that Moscow plans to “actually involve” North Korea in the war in the coming months.
Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, the president said that Russia is planning to train and engage not only infantry but also North Korean specialists in various branches of the military.
“We know about 10,000 soldiers from North Korea they are preparing to send to fight against us,” he added.
According to military intelligence, some North Korean officers are already in occupied territories of Ukraine and joined the Russian army. Their number is unknown, Zelensky added.
According to Zelensky, the participation of the North Korean military in Russia’s war “is the first step to a world war.”
Moscow and Pyongyang have deepened military cooperation as Russia seeks arms and other support in its full-scale war against Ukraine. North Korea has been supplying Russia with ballistic missiles and vast quantities of artillery shells.
Iran is another Russian ally, aiding Moscow in its aggression against Ukraine. Tehran has provided Russia with thousands of Shahed kamikaze drones that are used for daily attacks across Ukraine.
“Iran gave (Russia) drones, license to produce these drones and missiles. But not people, not officially. And here we see this first step in this war,” Zelensky added.
Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s former commander-in-chief and current ambassador to the U.K., said it is almost impossible to escape the state of “protracted” war with Russia in a speech at the Chatham House on Oct. 17, according to a Kyiv Independent reporter.
Zaluzhnyi reiterated that back in 2023, the West did not provide Kyiv with a sufficient number of weapons, which is why Ukraine failed to achieve “significant success in defeating Russia” during the counteroffensive.
“Consequentially, we ended up in a state of protracted war. In my personal opinion, a way out of this protracted war seems…almost impossible,” he said.
In November 2023, The Economist published an interview with Zaluzhnyi and an op-ed by the general, in which he characterized the state of the war as a “stalemate.”
The comment contrasted the outlook usually offered by President Volodymyr Zelensky and his administration in public comments and reportedly triggered a discord between the two.
Zaluzhnyi warned that Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine was moving to a “positional” stage. This new stage is characterized by “static and attritional fighting” that will allow Russia to restore its military power.
Throughout 2024, Ukraine has faced a challenging situation in defending the front line, particularly in Donetsk Oblast, where Russia has consistently concentrated its offensive potential.
Following Ukraine’s withdrawal from Vuhledar in early October, Russian forces have been focusing their efforts against the Donetsk Oblast towns of Pokrovsk, Toretsk, and Kurakhove, where outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainian soldiers are slowly losing ground under Russian pressure.
Nikita Klenkov, a deputy commander of a unit for Russia’s military intelligence agency (GRU), was shot dead in Moscow Oblast by an unknown assailant, Russian media reported on Oct. 16.
Klenkov, 44, was reportedly the deputy commander of GRU unit 43292, which serves as training center for Special Operations Forces, the Moscow Times reported.
Russian Telegram channel Baza reported that Klenkov was shot at on the side of a road in the town of Melenki, east of Moscow. The assailant reportedly fire eight shots from the window of a car.
According to the Russian state-run media outlet TASS, Klenkov “returned home a week ago” from Ukraine’s front line, according to a GRU source.
Russian state media reported that an investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify any of the reports in Russian state media.
It is currently unclear if the attack was intended as a politically-motivated assassination. Kyiv has not commented on the situation.
In July, another officer from Russia’s GRU had his feet blown off in a car bomb attack in Moscow.
Kyiv denied any involvement in that attack. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told independent Russian media he believed there was “a malfunction with the gas equipment in the car.”