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Volodymyr Zelenskyy has first said that he is ready to withdraw as president of Ukraine if the mass ensured NATO membership or sustainable peace for his country.
“If you bring peace to Ukraine, if you really need me to leave my post, I’m ready. I can exchange it for NATO (membership),” Zelenskyy reporters told a press conference in Kyiv on Sunday. “If such conditions exist (I will withdraw) immediately.”
“I am focusing on security today and not in 20 years… I will not be in power for decades,” Zelenskyy said before the third anniversary of Russia’s full occupation in Ukraine on Monday.
The startling offer to give up, while it is impossible given the faint prospects of NATO’s acceptance, is a sign of extreme pressure on Ukraine’s leader as the US rushes to create a peace deal with Moscow.
The Trump administration has made several concessions for Russia, including agreeing to normalize relations after bilateral talks in Saudi Arabia last week, excluding NATO membership for Ukraine.
Trump described Zelenskyy last week as a “dictator” while blaming Kyiv, rather than Moscow, for the start of the war.
Russia launched its biggest drone strike against Ukraine on Sunday, firing 267 drones against numerous objectives across the country.
Ukrainian officials say Washington is also trying to be strong Zelenskyy to sign an agreement that would give large US amounts of income from the extraction of Ukrainian mineral deposits.
US officials presented Kyiv last week with a plan to channel up to $ 500 billion in income from springs to a fund that would be 100 per cent owned by US Trump has described the plan as repayment for assistance previous US military.
Zelenskyy withdrew against the requirements of the Trump administration.
“I know we had $ 100 billion (with help from the US) but I won’t accept $ 500 billion, no matter what someone says,” Zelenskyy said. “I won’t sign something for which they will pay ten generations of Ukrainians.”
Zelenskyy also rejected a statement by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in an optimal for financial times that a “partnership” of minerals with the US would strengthen Ukraine’s security.
Zelenksyy challenged “a certain logic” in Washington that the presence of US companies would prevent further Russian aggression, pointing out that some American businesses had operations in Ukraine when Russia first attacked in 2014.
“This does not offer a 100 percent guarantee that Russians will not return to countries (US companies) have entered,” Zelenskyy added.
Zelenskyy has said that NATO membership for Ukraine is the latest security guarantee against future Russian military aggression. But the Trump administration has poured cold water for the idea, with US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth saying at the Munich security conference last weekend that “did not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic result of a negotiated solution . ”
He also excluded the deployment of US troops in Ukraine after the end of the war with Russia, which Zelenskyy said on Sunday that he would like to see as part of a rare and critical mineral agreement that his administration is negotiating with the White House .
The Trump administration has argued that an agreement would promote post -war growth in the country, but this is postponed. Zelenskyy said on Sunday that, as now proposed by Washington, it would be very expensive and would not provide adequate security guarantees.
Zelenskyy said he was convinced that Trump “wants to end this war and would help us do it”, but was also concerned that the US president would present a simple ceasefire as “great success”.
“We want to guarantee security for our people,” he said.
