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 Mr 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.
US 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.
Mr Trump’s criticism of Mr Zelenskiy came as relations between the two leaders deteriorated sharply in recent weeks.
Mr Zelenskiy has opposed the idea of elections during a full-scale war, a position supported by his main domestic political opponents.
The Ukrainian president also said he wanted to see Mr 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.
saidZelenskiyZelenskiyUkraine’s president Volodymyr On Sunday – the third anniversary of the invasion – Russia launched more than 200 drones in an overnight attack on Ukraine, the largest of the war.
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Mr Zelenskiy condemned Russia’s “aerial terror” and called for unity among Ukraine’s allies.
“Every day, our people stand against aerial terror,” he wrote on X.
“On the eve of the third anniversary of the full-scale war, Russia launched 267 attack drones against Ukraine – the largest attack since Iranian drones began striking Ukrainian cities and villages.”
Ukraine’s air force said in a statement that 138 of the drones were downed and another 119 disappeared from radars after being jammed by electronic warfare, adding that Russia also launched three ballistic missiles.
Damage was reported in five regions of Ukraine.
Moscow has launched near-nightly mass drone attacks at Ukraine for months, seeking to exhaust air defences.
Mr Zelenskiy said that in total, nearly 1,150 attack drones, more than 1,400 guided aerial bombs and 35 missiles of various types were launched by Russia at Ukraine in the past week.
The president thanked those operating Ukraine’s air defences, and called on the country’s foreign allies to stand united to secure a “just and lasting peace”.
“This is achievable through the unity of all partners – we need the strength of all of Europe, the strength of America, the strength of everyone who seeks lasting peace.”
Kyiv and its European allies have been unnerved by Mr Trump verbally attacking Mr Zelenskiy last week, as well as by a meeting between US and Russian delegations in Riyadh to which Ukraine was not invited.
On Wednesday, Mr Trump said the Ukrainian leader was a “dictator without elections”, warning the Ukrainian president that he “better move fast or he is not going to have a country left”.
The US president also said Mr Zelenskiy had “talked the United States of America into spending $350 billion to go into a war that couldn’t be won, that never had to start”.
After much of what the president said echoed Kremlin talking points, including falsehoods about Mr Zelenskiy’s popularity being at 4 per cent (a recent poll put it at 57 per cent), the Ukrainian leader hit back by saying Mr Trump was caught in a Russian “disinformation bubble”.
Despite criticism from Nato allies, preparations for a face-to-face meeting between Mr Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin are under way, as Washington appears to abandon the policy of western isolation of Moscow since the invasion. – Agencies
