Zelensky offers to resign if it means peace for Ukraine

Kyiv — Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday he was willing to give up his position if it meant peace in Ukraine, adding that he could exchange his departure for his country’s entry into the Nato military alliance.

“If [it means] peace for Ukraine, if you really need me to leave my post, I am ready,” an irritated-looking Zelensky said when asked during a press conference whether he was ready to leave his post if it meant securing peace.

“I can exchange this for Nato [membership], if that condition is there, immediately,” Zelensky added.

US President Donald Trump has pushed for elections to take place in Ukraine, having branded Zelensky a “dictator”, an apparent reference to the Ukrainian leader’s official five-year term running out in 2024. Russia has cited this in the past to assert that he is an illegitimate leader.

Ukrainian legislation prohibits holding elections during a state of martial law, which Ukraine declared the day Russia invaded in February 2022. Trump also falsely claimed that Zelensky has an approval rating of 4%.

“I am not going to be in power for decades, but we will not allow Putin to be in power over the territories of Ukraine either,” Zelensky said on Sunday, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A poll released this week put Zelensky’s approval ratings at 63%, and he made reference to this when talking about Trump’s claims on Sunday, calling his false statements “dangerous”.

“I believe it’s not a mistake, it’s misinformation that has an impact,” Zelensky said.

Zelensky said earlier this week Trump was in a “disinformation bubble”, angering the US president and his team. On Sunday, he sought to justify the earlier comments.

“[The information] about 4% of Ukrainians supporting me is one of the signals spread by the Russians, that’s why I said it was a disinformation attack, I didn’t say it was President Trump,” Zelensky said on Sunday.

Trump’s criticism of Zelensky came as relations between the two leaders deteriorated sharply in recent weeks.

Zelensky opposes the idea of elections in a full-scale war, a position backed by his major domestic political opponents.

The Ukrainian president also said he wanted to see Trump as a partner for Ukraine and more than a simply a mediator between Kyiv and Moscow.

“I really want it to be more than just mediation … that’s not enough,” he told a press conference in Kyiv.

Trump has said Ukraine should give the US $500bn in critical raw materials as payback for aid that Kyiv has already received from the previous president Joe Biden’s administration.

Zelensky declined to sign a detailed US proposal last week that would have seen Washington receiving 50% of Ukraine’s critical minerals, which include graphite, uranium, titanium and lithium, the latter a key component in electric car batteries.

He has said he wants to do a deal, but that it should offer security guarantees for Ukraine in return.

On Friday, he said US and Ukrainian teams were working on a deal and Trump said he expects a deal will be signed soon.

On Sunday, Zelensky said at the press conference that he rejected the idea that Ukraine owed the US $500bn.

“There cannot be [any] format which makes us debtors for the old [aid given].”

Zelensky said earlier this week that Washington had supplied his country with $67bn in weapons and $31.5bn in direct budget support throughout the nearly three-year war with Russia.

“I will not sign what 10 generations of Ukrainians will be repaying,” Zelensky said of the minerals deal.

Ukraine’s economy minister, Yuliia Svyrydenko, said on Sunday the 18% of Ukraine under Russian occupation contained about $350bn of critical raw materials, adding that Ukraine is conducting additional geological research to update decades-old information.

The president’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said on Sunday that he had held constructive new talks with senior US officials on a deal to develop Ukrainian minerals.

“We are moving forward with our work. This was a constructive discussion,” Yermak wrote on Telegram.

Update: February 23 2205
This story has been updated with new information.

Reuters