Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday - the eve of the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion - that he was ready to quit as Ukraine’s president if it meant Kyiv would be admitted to the NATO military alliance.
“If there is peace for Ukraine, if you really need me to leave my post, I am ready. ... I can exchange it for NATO,” Zelensky said during a press conference at the “Ukraine. The Year 2025” forum, adding he would depart “immediately” if necessary.
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Zelensky has urged that Ukraine be granted NATO membership as part of any agreement to end the war, but the US-led alliance has been hesitant to commit.
Trump has been ramping up his anti-Zelensky and pro-Kremlin rhetoric since US and Russian officials held their first high-level talks in three years last week in Saudi Arabia.
Trump has claimed that Zelensky was a “dictator” because of the lack of elections in Ukraine after Russia’s 2022 invasion, though elections are prohibited in Ukraine during martial law. This was written into the Ukrainian Constitution in 2015 under the previous Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko.
Zelensky said at the conference that he was “not offended” by Trump’s description of him as a dictator and that only a true authoritarian would take offense at these words.
“I certainly would not describe the words Trump used as a compliment. One would be offended by the word dictator if he was a dictator. I’m not. I’m the legally elected president,” Zelensky said
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