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Volodymyr Zelenskyy said for the first time that he was ready to resign as president of Ukraine if the move guaranteed adherence to NATO or lasting peace for his country.
“If it brings peace for Ukraine, if you really need me to leave my post, I’m ready. I can exchange it for NATO [membership]”Said Zelenskyy to journalists at a press conference in Kyiv on Sunday. “If such conditions exist [I will step down] immediately.”
“I focus on security today and not in 20 years. . . I will not have been in power for decades, “said Zelenskyy before the third anniversary of the Full Ukraine Invasion of Russia on Monday.
The surprising offer to resign, although recklessness given the low prospects for NATO membership, is a sign of extreme pressure on the Ukrainian chief while the United States rushes to develop a peace agreement With Moscow.
The Trump administration made several concessions to Russia, in particular by agreeing to normalize relations after bilateral talks in Saudi Arabia last week, while excluding membership in NATO for Ukraine.
Trump described Zelenskyy last week as a “dictator” while blaming Kyiv, rather than Moscow, for having triggered the war.
Russia launched its greatest drone strike against Ukraine on Sunday, dismissing 267 drones against several targets across the country.
Ukrainian officials say Washington is also trying to make Zelenskyy in a strong hand to sign an agreement that will grant the United States large quantities of the product of the extraction of Ukrainian mineral deposits.
US officials presented a plan to Kyiv last week to channel up to $ 500 billion in resource extraction in a fund of 100% in the United States. Trump described the plan as a reimbursement of previous American military aid.
Zelenskyy postponed requests from the Trump administration.
“I know we had $ 100 billion [of assistance from the US] But I will not recognize $ 500 billion, no matter what someone says, “said Zelenskyy. “I’m not going to sign something that ten generations of Ukrainians will pay.”
Zelenskyy also rejected an assertion by the American secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent in a spur For financial time, a mineral “partnership” with the United States would strengthen the security of Ukraine.
Zelenksyy challenged “a certain logic” in Washington that the presence of American companies would dissuade additional Russian assault, stressing that several American companies had operations in Ukraine when Russia attacked for the first time in 2014.
“This does not provide a 100% warranty that the Russians will not return to places that [US companies] entered, ”added Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy said NATO membership for Ukraine is the ultimate security guarantee against future Russian military assault. But the Trump administration has shed cold water on the idea, the American defense secretary Pete Hegseth, said at the Munich security conference last weekend that he “did not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic result of a negotiated regulation. ”
He also excluded the deployment of American troops in Ukraine after the end of the war with Russia, which Zelenskyy said on Sunday that he would like to see within the framework of an agreement on rare and critical minerals that his administration negotiates with The White House.
The Trump administration argued that an agreement would feed post-war growth in the country, but kyiv has pushed back. Zelenskyy said on Sunday that, as Washington is now offered, it would be too expensive and would not provide adequate security guarantees.
Zelenskyy said he was convinced that Trump “wanted to end this war and help us do it”, but was also feared that the American president will present a simple ceasefire as “great success”.
“We want to guarantee the security of our employees,” he said.
