Zelensky Willing To Give Up Presidency For Nato Membership
Volodymyr Zelensky said he would be willing to “give up” his presidency in exchange for peace ahead of the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“If to achieve peace you really need me to give up my post – I’m ready. I can trade it for Nato membership, if there are such conditions,” the Ukrainian president said in response to a question during a news conference.
His comments came after US President Donald Trump called Zelensky a “dictator without elections” earlier in the week.
“I wasn’t offended, but a dictator would be,” Zelensky, who was democratically elected in May 2019, responded on Sunday.
“I am focused on Ukraine’s security today, not in 20 years, I am not going to be in power for decades,” he added.
According to Ukrainian law, elections are suspended under martial law, which has been in place since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Zelensky is meeting Western leaders on Monday, some in person in Kyiv and some online, as they work out how to provide a post-war security where the US will not.
He said the topic of Ukraine joining Nato would be “on the table” at the meeting but he did not know how the discussions would “finish”. He hoped the meeting would be a “turning point”.
On the topic of Trump, Zelensky said that he wanted to see the US president as a partner to Ukraine and more than a mediator between Kyiv and Moscow.
With the White House demanding that it gets access to billions of dollars’ worth of Ukraine’s natural minerals in exchange for the military aid it provided to date – and could in the future – Zelensky said US help so far had been agreed as grants, not loans.
He said he would not agree to a security deal which – in his words – would be “paid off by generation after generation”.
When asked about a potential mineral deal, Zelensky said “we are making progress,” adding that Ukrainian and US officials had been in touch.
