President said Sunday he would “immediately” quit as head of state in exchange for the country gaining NATO membership.
“If there is peace for Ukraine, if you really need me to leave my post, I am ready. … I can exchange it for NATO,” Zelenskyy told a press conference in Kyiv.
He added that he would step down “immediately” if necessary.
Zelenskyy also said he wanted to see US President as a partner to Ukraine and more than simply a mediator between Kyiv and Moscow.
“I really want it to be more than just mediation… that’s not enough,” he told reporters on the eve of the of full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Trump escalated a war of words with Kyiv this week, appearing to accuse Ukraine of starting the war, and calling Zelenskyy a “dictator” as he had canceled an election due to the conflict.
He later called for Putin and Zelenskyy to “get together” to find a way to end the war, despite Ukraine being excluded from recent negotiations.
Zelenskyy restates need for US security guarantees
During Sunday’s press conference, the Ukrainian leader called on Trump to provide concrete security guarantees to help Kyiv defend itself.
Zelenskyy also spoke of “progress” in talks on a deal to give the US access to Ukrainian natural resources in exchange for security assistance.
Trump’s envoy to Ukraine Steve Witkoff told CNN on Sunday that the agreement to tap Ukraine’s rare-earth minerals could be “signed this week.”
“Any peace deal, each side is going to make concessions,” Witkoff said, adding, “That’s what the president does best — he brings people together. He gets them to understand that the pathway to peace is concessions and consensus building.
Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said US troop deployment in Ukraine would be a logical step as a security guarantee if the minerals deal is signed.
He also refused to acknowledge that Ukraine owed Washington $500 billion, a figure often cited by Trump as the total wartime aid provided by the US to Kyiv.
A support tracker by Germany’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW-Kiel) shows the US has, so far, committed $114 billion in total support to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy went on to say that grants should not be treated as loans — a reference to Trump’s complaint that the Biden administration had offered aid in the form of grants, while the European Union has supported Ukraine with loans.
Kremlin says Russia, US set for fresh talks
Meanwhile, Russia’s TASS news agency cited Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying that diplomats from Washington and Moscow would meet this week to discuss “topics which upset our bilateral relations.”
The fresh talks follow a summit between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Riyadh on February 18 to discuss ending the Ukraine war. Kyiv was not invited to participate in the talks.
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