Ukraine’s Zelensky ready to give up presidency for peace and Nato membership | BreakingNews.ie

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he would be ready to give up the presidency if doing so would achieve a lasting peace for his country under the security umbrella of the Nato military alliance.

Speaking at a forum of government officials in Kyiv marking the three-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Mr Zelensky said, “If to achieve peace, you really need me to give up my post, I’m ready.”

Responding to a journalist’s question on whether he would trade his office for peace, Mr Zelensky said, “I can trade it for Nato.”

His comment appeared to be aimed at recent suggestions by US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that elections should be held in Ukraine despite Ukrainian legislation prohibiting them during martial law.

Earlier on Sunday, Mr Zelensky said Russia launched 267 strike drones into Ukraine overnight on Saturday, more than in any other single attack of the war.

Ukraine’s air force said 138 drones had been shot down over 13 Ukrainian regions, with 119 more lost en route to their targets.

Three ballistic missiles had also been fired, the air force said. One person was killed in the city of Kryvyi Rih, according to the city military administration.

The attack came as leaders in Kyiv and across Europe are seeking to navigate rapid changes in US foreign policy under President Donald Trump, who in a matter of days has upended years of firm support for Ukraine, leading to fears that he would join with Moscow to force a settlement to the war without involving Ukraine and its European backers.

Mr Trump’s engagement with Russian officials and his agreement to reopen diplomatic ties and economic co-operation with Moscow marked a dramatic about-face in US policy.

Mr Zelensky has expressed fears that Mr Trump pushing a quick resolution would result in lost territory for Ukraine and vulnerability to future Russian aggression, though US officials have asserted that the Ukrainian leader would be involved if and when peace talks actually start.

Mr Trump, however, prompted alarm and anger in Ukraine when this week he suggested that Kyiv had started the war, and that Mr Zelensky was acting as a “dictator” by not holding elections, despite Ukrainian legislation prohibiting them during martial law.

Russia’s deputy foreign minister on Saturday said preparations were under way for a Trump-Putin meeting, a further sign that the Russian leader’s isolation, at least for the Trump administration, was beginning to thaw.

Reacting to the latest Russian attacks, however, Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that the overnight attack “demonstrates that avoiding calling Russia an aggressor does not change the fact that it is one”.

“No one should trust Putin’s words. Look at his actions instead,” Mr Sybiha said in a statement on social media.

Mr Zelensky on Sunday said he may be forced to sign an economic agreement with the United States that would ensure continued aid for Ukraine in return for the US making a profit from minerals in the country.

“If your conditions are, ‘We will not give you aid if you do not sign an agreement’, then it is clear,” Mr Zelensky said during a news conference at the forum of government officials.

“If we are forced and we cannot do without it, then we should probably go for it… I just want a dialogue with President (Donald) Trump.”

The Trump administration has pressured Mr Zelensky to sign a deal allowing the US access to Ukrainian rare earth minerals as a form of compensation for the assistance the US has provided to Kyiv as it defends against Russia’s invasion.

Mr Zelensky earlier declined to sign off on an initial US offer, arguing it did not provide Ukraine with the security guarantees it needs to deter Russian attacks.

On Sunday, Mr Zelensky said he was open to brokering a deal that would let the US profit from his country’s minerals, but the 500 billion dollar sum initially proposed by the Trump administration was not acceptable.

“I am not signing something that will be paid off by 10 generations of Ukrainians,” he said.

Mr Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrii Yermak, left the Kyiv forum early on Sunday along with Economic Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko for what Mr Yermak said were talks with US officials on a potential deal.

He said Ukraine’s mineral resources represent “a very important element that can work in the general structure of security guarantees — military guarantees and others.”

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Meanwhile, Mr Putin in a special televised message on Sunday praised Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine for defending “their native land, the national interests and the future of Russia”.

Mr Putin used his speech, on Russia’s Defender of the Fatherland Day, to pledge greater social support for military personnel and new weapons and equipment for Russian forces.

“Today, as the world is changing impetuously, our strategic course for strengthening and developing the Armed Forces remains unchanged,” he said, adding that Russia would continue to develop its armed forces “as the essential part of Russia’s security that guarantees its sovereign present and future”.