Ukraine should be in NATO because it gave up nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees, but received nothing in return, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Friday.

"I believe that Ukraine should be in NATO, and the argument that during the Budapest Memorandum we gave up nuclear weapons and we were guaranteed security and territorial integrity of Ukraine. What we are saying is that if Ukraine did not give up nuclear weapons, it would be exactly the umbrella that other nuclear states have," he said in an interview on the national telethon.