What is Nato, as leaders hold emergency meeting over Ukraine war?
He warned that he had “seen intelligence” that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was building his troops.
The Ukrainian president warned Russia will “wage war against Nato” if the US does decide to step back from its support of Ukraine now President Donald Trump is in charge.
He made the claim on the NBC show Meet the Press, ahead of an emergency summit of European leaders in Paris on Monday, to discuss Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Speaking on the show on Sunday, Mr Zelensky warned: “It can happen in summer, maybe in the beginning, maybe in the end of summer. I do not know when he prepares it. But it will happen. And at that moment, knowing that he did not succeed in occupying us, we do not know where he will go.”
Mr Trump has been in talks directly with Putin over ending the war.
But what is Nato and which countries are members?
Nato – the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation – is a political and military alliance formed of 30 mostly European countries, as well as the US and Canada.
The heart of the Nato alliance is Article 5, an agreement that an armed attack on one member will be viewed as an attack on all, and that they are obliged to defend one another.
Nato was formed by 12 countries in 1949 to counter the threat of post-war communist Russian expansion in Europe. In 1955, Soviet Russia responded to Nato’s formation by creating its own military alliance of Eastern European communist countries, called the Warsaw Pact.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, several former Warsaw Pact countries switched sides and became Nato members.
Nato does not have its own armed forces. Instead, it has a military command structure that works with the militaries of member countries in peacekeeping operations.
Nato comprises 32 nations, including multiple European countries as well as the US and Canada.
The founding members were:
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Belgium
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Canada
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Denmark
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France
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Iceland
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Italy
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Luxembourg
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The Netherlands
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Norway
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Portugal
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The UK
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The US
Members who have joined since are:
- Albania (2009)
- Bulgaria (2004)
- Croatia (2009)
- Czech Republic (1999)
- Estonia (2004)
- Finland (2023)
- Germany (1955)
- Greece (1952)
- Hungary (1999)
- Latvia (2004)
- Lithuania (2004)
- Montenegro (2017)
- North Macedonia (2020)
- Poland (1999)
- Romania (2004)
- Slovakia (2004)
- Slovenia (2004)
- Spain (1982)
- Sweden (2024)
- Turkey (1952)
Ukraine is not a Nato member. Ukraine is a Nato partner country, which means that it co-operates closely with the organisation but it is not covered by the security guarantee in the alliance’s founding treaty.
After Russia’s invasion, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky asked to be allowed into Nato and for this process to be fast-tracked.
Former Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine could join “in the long term” but not until after the war ended.
How are Nato countries helping Ukraine?
Nato has described Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “direct threat to allies’ security”.
No troops have been sent into Ukraine amid fears of being pulled into a direct conflict with Russia.
European Nato members provided 52.6bn euros (£43.7bn) over the same period.
The US, UK, Germany and Turkey and others have sent anti-tank weapons, missil- defence systems such as Patriot, artillery guns, tanks and drones.
The US, UK and France have also supplied long-range missiles such as Atacms and Storm Shadow/Scalp.
