Volodymyr Zeleskyy says he can give up presidency if that brings peace to Ukraine
Kyiv/IBNS: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Sunday said he was willing to give up his position if that would bring peace to Ukraine, media reports said.
Zelenskyy said he can exchange his departure for Ukraine's entry into NATO.
He said he wanted to see US President Donald Trump as a partner to Ukraine, a role more than being just 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.
Trump Wednesday called Volodymyr Zelenskyy a "dictator", deepening the personal rift that will have major implications for the effort to end the conflict triggered by Russia's invasion three years ago.
The United States had provided funding and arms to Ukraine but, in an abrupt policy shift since Trump assumed office, he has opened talks with Moscow.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump had said: "Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start, but a War that he, without the U.S. and “TRUMP,” will never be able to settle."
"A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left," Trump wrote of the Ukrainian leader, whose five-year term expired last year.
Ukrainian law does not require elections during wartime.
On Tuesday Trump held a press conference in which he slammed Zelenskyy, and made comments aligned to Kremlin narratives about the conflict and called for an end to the war.
Zelenskyy in turn accused Trump of succumbing to Russian "disinformation," including the US President blaming Kyiv for having "started" the war and echoing Kremlin questions over the Ukrainian leader's legitimacy.
In his post, Trump had said: "He (Zelenskyy) refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden “like a fiddle.”
"In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only 'TRUMP,' and the Trump Administration, can do. I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died – And so it continues….." he wrote.
Zelenskyy was elected in 2019 for a five-year term but has remained the President under martial law that was imposed following the Russian invasion.
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