On the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine told reporters he would be willing to give up his post in exchange for peace or for NATO membership.
As Trump falsely claimed Zelensky was “a dictator without elections,” Zelensky said he was not offended by the accusation. “I wasn’t offended, but a dictator would be.”
Zelensky was democratically elected in 2019. According to Ukrainian law, elections are suspended under martial law, which has been in place since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Zelensky meets with Western leaders on Monday to work out post-war security if the U.S. will not.
Zelensky said he wanted to see Trump as a partner to Ukraine and more than a mediator between Kyiv and Moscow.
As Trump insists on access to billions worth of mineral rights in Ukraine as reimbursement for U.S. assistance, Zelensky says that the help received from the U.S. had been agreed as grants and not loans. Zelensky said he would not agree to a deal that would be paid of by generation after generation of Ukrainians.
Regarding a deal with the U.S., Zelensky said they are making progress. “We are ready to share,” the Ukrainian leader said, but made clear that Washington first needed to ensure Russian President Vladimir Putin “ends this war”.
Pope Francis – who is in hospital with respiratory illness – wrote in a remarks released on Sunday that the third anniversary of the war was “a painful and shameful occasion for the whole of humanity”.
