The Ukrainian president said would resign “immediately” if his country was offered NATO membership.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday he would quit as Ukraine’s 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 Donald Trump 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 third anniversary of Russia’s 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.
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 special envoy 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.
