VOLODYMYR Zelensky has offered to step down as Ukraine’s president in exchange for peace or getting his country a Nato membership.
The shocking remark comes as Donald Trump and Putin’s Russia hold peace talks without Kyiv at the table.
AFPVolodymyr Zelensky has offered to step down as Ukraine’s president in exchange for peace or a Nato membership[/caption]
AFPUkrainian soldiers drive a tank in a position near to the town of Bakhmut[/caption]
APThe Ukrainian president made the shocking remarks at a press conference on Sunday[/caption]
United States President Donald Trump previously dubbed Zelensky a ‘dictator’
The Ukrainian president said on Sunday: “If it’s about peace in Ukraine and you really want me to leave my position, I am ready to do that [in exchange for peace].
“Secondly I can exchange it for Nato [membership].
“If there is such an opportunity I’ll do it immediately without a long conversation about it.”
He emphasised that Ukraine’s security was his priority, not staying in office, adding that it was not his “dream” to remain president for a decade.
His remarks came after Trump dubbed him a “dictator” for refusing to organise elections, which are banned in Ukraine under martial law.
Reports have emerged that Ukraine may be forced to hold elections before any final peace agreement with Russia is reached, The Telegraph reports.
Trump, who has repeatedly boasted he could end the war within “24 hours,” said the demand for elections “came from me” and appeared to blame Ukraine for not reaching a deal sooner.
“You’ve been there for three years… You should have never started it. You could have made a deal,” Trump said.
Zelensky said an “important meeting” of world leaders would take place on Monday, the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
He hinted that major decisions could emerge from the summit, which will include 13 nations attending in person and 24 joining online.
“Tomorrow’s summit is crucial. It might even be a turning point—we’ll see,” he said.
PUTIN BLITZ
Zelensky’s shocking comments came as Putin launched Russia’s largest drone attack of the war so far.
Ukrainian officials said a “record” 267 Russian drones were fired in a single, coordinated assault on Sunday – just one day before the war’s third anniversary.
Yuriy Ignat, Ukraine’s air force spokesman, said 138 drones were intercepted, while 119 disappeared after being jammed.
Despite Ukraine’s air defences, drone strikes caused fires and destruction across the country.
Russian President Vladimir Putin blitzed Ukraine with its biggest ever drone bombardment on the eve of the war’s third anniversary
ReutersUkrainian service personnel use searchlights as they search for drones in the sky over the city during a Russian drone strike on Sunday[/caption]
ReutersFire crews work at the site of a Russian missile strike in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine[/caption]
Zelensky described it as “aerial terror”, saying Russia had attacked Ukraine with 1,150 drones in the past week alone.
He warned that the latest assault underscored the urgent need for a “lasting and just peace”, which he said could only come with the “strength of all of Europe and America”.
TRUMP & ZELENSKY’S RIFT
The latest escalation came on the eve of the war’s third anniversary and as the White House suggested a peace deal could be reached “this week”.
Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president was “very confident” that negotiations with both sides would end the war soon.
“The president, his team are very much focused on continuing negotiations… and the president is very confident we can get it done this week,” she said.
But tensions between Washington and Kyiv have been rising after Zelensky reportedly refused to sign an agreement that would hand over $500 billion worth of critical minerals and rare earths to the US.
The White House had initially claimed a deal was “close”, but Ukrainian sources suggested the current draft was not ready to be signed.
Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has cast doubt on Ukraine joining NATO as part of any peace settlement, a key condition for Zelensky stepping down.
Tensions were already boiling after Trump dismissed Zelensky’s importance in peace talks.
“I don’t think he’s very important to be in meetings,” Trump told Fox News.
“He’s been there for three years. He makes it very hard to make deals.”
Speaking at the White House on Friday, Trump doubled down, saying: “I’ve had very good talks with Putin, and I’ve had not such good talks with Ukraine.”
The US President also blasted Zelensky’s wartime leadership, callig him a “modestly successful comedian” who must “move fast or he is not going to have a country left.”
Wrong, Donald
The Sun Says…
DONALD Trump’s smearing of the Ukraine regime as scam artists who provoked a war using US taxpayers’ money is a rant beneath the dignity of his office.
Almost nothing in it is true.
It reads like a post on a forum for conspiracy theorists. It is an unprecedentedly shocking statement from the President of the United States.
Vladimir Putin has made no secret of his imperialist ambitions, nor his denial of his neighbour’s right to exist as a sovereign, free country.
He invaded Ukraine, butchered and raped its people, stole its children and bombed its cities.
President Zelensky — far from duping anyone or inviting the conflict, far from being a “dictator without elections” — has been a heroic wartime leader who needs Western aid to overcome staggering odds.
The idea he is riding a “gravy train” is laughable. And his people, with whom he remains highly popular whatever Trump claims, have resisted conquest with immense bravery.
It is troubling and short-sighted in the extreme for the so-called leader of the free world to have no interest in a war raging in Europe because he is separated from it by the Atlantic.
America is not a business where Trump, as CEO, has no task except to slash costs and maximise profits. It is the most powerful democracy on Earth with global responsibilities and — let’s be frank — a duty to discern right from wrong with absolute moral clarity.
Others in the White House should urgently point this out.