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KYIV (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine would need the U.S. to help it build up an army as big as that of Russia to serve as a "Plan B" if his country is not admitted into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Kyiv, which has been locked in all-out war with invading Russian forces since February 2022, has said that joining NATO would be the strongest, cheapest way to prevent Russia launching a new invasion on it after a ceasefire or peace deal is reached.
"... If Ukraine is not in NATO, it means that Ukraine will build NATO on its territory. So we need an army as numerous as the Russians have today," Zelenskiy said in an interview with The Economist published on Wednesday.
"And for all this, we need weapons and money. And we will ask the U.S. for this," Zelenskiy said, describing that as his "Plan B".
Washington is among several NATO members who are opposed to Ukraine joining NATO currently.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that the United States did not see Kyiv's membership in the alliance as part of its peace plan for Ukraine.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said he wants to end the war in Ukraine quickly but no concrete plan of action has been made public.
Zelenskiy and other senior Ukrainian officials are expected to meet members of Trump's administration on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference later this week to discuss the war.
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; editing by Tom Balmforth and Mark Heinrich)
