Ukrainian President Voldymir Zelensky said on Sunday that he would step down from his presidency if it meant achieving lasting peace in Ukraine.
“In order to achieve peace, you really need to give up on my post, so I'm ready,” Zelensky said in Kiev, three years after Russia began infringing its own country. To commemorate this, we spoke at the government forum.
He suggested that NATO memberships need to be at the table.
Zelensky was asked by a journalist if he would exchange his office for peace. “We can exchange it for NATO,” he said.
Zelensky's remarks come days after President Trump called the Ukrainian president “a terrifying job” and a “no election dictator.” Ukrainian law, as it is now, prevents elections under martial law.
It also brought the Trump administration to end the war by cutting Ukraine and Europe from its initial talks with Russia. Just as Trump's rhetoric about the war increasingly reflects Russian President Vladimir Putin, Zelensky accused him of living in a “net of disinformation.”
Zelensky continues to support the majority in Ukraine, contrary to Trump's claims last week, according to the latest vote.
Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials have long pushed for inclusion in NATO as the most powerful defense against future Russian invasions. However, the Biden administration has delayed its decision on that front, indicating that opposition to Ukraine will join the alliance.
Before the US-led Ukrainian Defense Liaison Group meeting in Brussels almost two weeks ago, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegses said that NATO membership is not “realistic” and that Washington is no longer in Europe and Ukraine. He said he showed that safety is not a priority.
“The US does not consider Ukraine's NATO membership to be a realistic outcome of the negotiated settlement,” Hegses said, adding that the US military would not be involved in securing post-war Kiev. .
The Associated Press contributed.
