KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday he was willing to give up his position if it meant peace in Ukraine, quipping that he could exchange his departure for Ukraine’s entry into NATO.
“If (it means) peace for Ukraine, if you really need me to leave my post, I am ready,” an irritated-looking Zelenskiy 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,” the president added.
U.S. President Donald Trump has pushed for elections to take place in Ukraine, having branded Zelenskiy a “dictator”, an apparent reference to the Ukrainian leader’s official five-year term running out in 2024.
Trump’s criticism of Zelenskiy came as relations between the two leaders deteriorated sharply in recent weeks.
Zelenskiy has opposed the idea of elections during a full-scale war, a position supported by his major domestic political opponents.
The Ukrainian president also said he wanted to see Trump as a partner to 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.
(Reporting by Max Hunder, Anastasiia Malenko and Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Susan Fenton)
