The Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Rustem Umerov, is unaware of any proposals for Kyiv to relinquish occupied territories in exchange for NATO membership. He stated this to "Radio Liberty" during the sidelines of the NATO defense ministers' meeting in Brussels on October 18.
"No, I haven't heard anything like that. If it were true, I would definitely… do very bad things," he responded when asked if he had heard such proposals from partners.
It is worth noting that on September 26, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presented his victory plan to U.S. President Joe Biden during a visit to the United States.
On Wednesday, October 16, Zelensky presented the victory plan to the members of the Ukrainian Parliament during an extraordinary session. The plan consists of five points and three secret additions. Among the points are an invitation for Ukraine to join NATO and the deployment of non-nuclear deterrent weapons on the country's territory. Later, on October 17, Volodymyr Zelensky presented the victory plan without the secret points.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz criticized the victory plan. In his opinion, the priority should be to ensure that the full-scale conflict on Ukrainian territory does not lead to direct combat actions between Russia and NATO.