The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Sunday that he was willing to resign his position if he meant peace in Ukraine, and added that he could exchange his departure for his country’s entrance to the NATO military alliance, Reuters reported.
“If (means) Paz for Ukraine if you need to leave my publication, I am ready,” said an irritated -looking Zelenskiy when asked during a press conference if he was ready to leave his post if that meant to ensure peace.
“I can change this for NATO (membership), if that condition is there, immediately,” added the president.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has pressed so that the elections will take place in Ukraine, after having qualified Zelenskiy a “dictator”, an apparent reference to the official mandate of five years of the Ukrainian leader in 2024. Russia He has cited this in the past to affirm that he is an illegitimate leader.
The Ukrainian legislation prohibits the celebration of elections during a martial law, which Ukraine declared the day Russia invaded in February 2022. Trump also falsely said that Zelenskiy has an approval index of four percent.
“I will not be in power for decades, but we will not allow Putin to be in power over the territories of Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said Sunday, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A survey published this week put the approval ratings of Zelenskiy at 63%, and made reference to this when he talked about Trump’s claims on Sunday, calling his false statements as “dangerous.”
“I think it is not a mistake, it is the wrong information that has an impact,” said Zelenskiy.
Zelenskiy said at the beginning of this week Trump was in a “misinformation bubble”, angry the president of the United States and his team. On Sunday, he tried to justify the previous comments. “(The information) about four percent of the Ukrainians who support me is one of the signals extended by the Russians, that’s why I said it was a misinformation attack, I didn’t say it was President Trump,” Zelenskiy said Sunday.
Trump’s criticism to Zelenskiy occurred when the relations between the two leaders deteriorated sharply in recent weeks.
Zelenskiy opposes the idea of elections in a large -scale war, a position backed by its main national political opponents.
The Ukrainian president also said that he wanted to see Trump as a partner of Ukraine and more than simply a mediator between kyiv and Moscow.
“I want it to be more than just a mediation … that is not enough,” he said at a press conference in kyiv.
Mineral treatment
Trump has said that Ukraine should give US $ 500 billion in critical raw materials as a recovery of the aid that Kyiv has already received from the previous administration of Joe Biden.
Zelenskiy refused to sign a detailed US proposal of electric cars.
He has said he wants to make an agreement, but that he should offer security guarantees for Ukraine in return.
On Friday, he said that US and Ukrainian teams were working on an agreement and Trump said he hopes an agreement will be signed soon.
On Sunday, Zelenskiy said at the press conference that he rejected the idea that Ukraine owed US $ 500 billion.
“There can be (no) format that makes us debtors for the old (given help).”
Zelenskiy said earlier this week that Washington had provided his country $ 67 billion in arms and $ 31.5 billion in direct budget support during the war of almost three years with Russia.
“I will not sign what will pay 10 generations of Ukrainians,” Zelenskiy said on the Mineral Agreement.
The Minister of Economy of Ukraine, Yuliia Svyrydenko, said on Sunday that 18% of Ukraine under Russian occupation contained around $ 350 billion of critical raw materials, and added that Ukraine is carrying out an additional geological investigation to update the information of decades.
The president’s chief of the president, Andriy Yermak, said Sunday that he had had new constructive conversations with senior US officials in an agreement to develop Ukrainian minerals.
“We are moving forward with our work. This was a constructive discussion,” Yermak wrote on Telegram.
