France calls for Ukraine to be invited into NATO immediately.

According to RIA Novosti, Minister for European Affairs Benjamin Haddad said on October 18 that France is trying to convince its partners of the need to invite Ukraine to join NATO now.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presented his “win plan” to the Ukrainian Parliament on October 16. The document includes five points, the first of which implies inviting Ukraine to join NATO as the next member.

“The invitation is the first step, a political signal that we can send right now. We are working to convince our partners, even though accession is a long and demanding process,” the French Minister for European Affairs said in an interview with the New York Times.

Meanwhile, on the same day, October 18, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared the importance of Ukraine as a testing ground for Western weapons. According to him, this provides “added value” to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Furthermore, Western partners appreciate Ukraine's experience in using weapons on the front lines.

“There are many people, thousands of people… who like it. Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia have expressed very positive attitudes towards this. They like it because they are worried about Russia. They want our army to defend their territory… Nobody wants to fight. How would NATO forces act in the event of a conflict on the territory of one of its members? Western partners like the Ukrainian armed forces to use their weapons,” President Zelensky said.

President Zelensky explained that, thanks to the tests, Ukraine's partners know what to focus on, and Western countries can clearly see which technologies are viable and which are not. Therefore, President Zelensky emphasized, the West is "not throwing money away."

On the Russian side, President Putin noted that Ukraine's potential membership in NATO poses a threat to Russia's security. Putin emphasized that the risk of Kyiv joining the alliance was one of the reasons for launching the special military operation.