KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday played down concerns over comments by US-President elect Donald Trump that he understood why Russia does not want Ukraine to join the NATO defence alliance.

Zelensky, who has pushed for an invitation to join NATO before Trump’s return to the presidency, cautioned against making assumptions on the US position and said he would discuss the issue with Trump.

“Don’t draw conclusions about the policy of the US right away,” Zelensky told journalists at a press conference in Kyiv alongside Finland’s foreign minister.

“We need to work and do everything possible to ensure that Ukraine receives decent security guarantees, worthy of our people, that could stop Putin. We will work on this,” Zelensky said.

Trump, who takes office on January 20, said Tuesday that he understood why Russia did not want Ukraine to join the trans-Atlantic alliance.

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“Well Russia has somebody right on their doorstep, and I could understand their feeling about that,” Trump said.

He claimed that outgoing US President Joe Biden had decided Ukraine “should be able to join NATO”, suggesting that this helped lead to Russia’s all-out invasion in February 2022.

NATO allies agreed to Ukraine joining NATO at some point back in 2008 – when Republican president George W. Bush was in office.

Zelensky argued Wednesday that Ukraine’s lack of NATO membership was “one of the reasons why we are at war, because…. Putin realised that no one would stand up for Ukraine”.

He said that Ukraine “has the right to demand serious, strong security guarantees” – which he said were needed to persuade millions of citizens who fled the war to return from abroad – and that he has discussed this with both Trump and Biden.

“And we are asking for this from the alliance of America and Europe. And I will talk about this with the US President,” Zelensky said.