Washington – The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Sunday that he would be ready to abandon the presidency if it would make lasting peace for his country under the aegis of the security of the NATO military alliance.
Speaking during a forum of government representatives in kyiv marking the first anniversary of the Invasion of Russia on the scale of Ukraine, Zelenskyy said: “If to achieve peace, you really need Me to abandon my post, I am ready. ”
Answering the question of a journalist to find out if he would exchange his home office, Zelenskyy said: “I can exchange him for NATO.”
His comment seemed to be intended for suggestions By President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the elections should take place in Ukraine despite Ukrainian legislation prohibiting them during martial law.
Ivan Antypenko / Susilne Ukraine / JSC “UA: PBC” / Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
Earlier Sunday, Zelenskyy said that Russia launched 267 drones Strike in Ukraine overnight on Saturday, more than any other attack on the war.
Ukraine said 138 drones had been killed in 13 Ukrainian regions, with 119 others lost on the way to their targets.
Three ballistic missiles had also been drawn, said the air force. A person was killed in the city of Kryvyi Rih, according to the city’s military administration.
The attack came as managers of kyiv and through Europe seek to sail in rapid changes in the United States foreign policy under Mr. Trump, who in a few days has turned firm support for years In Ukraine, which makes it fear that it joins Moscow in Moscow to force a regulation in war without involving Ukraine and its European donors.
Mr. Trump’s commitment to Russian officials and his agreement to reopen diplomatic ties and economic cooperation with Moscow marked a dramatic subject in American politics.
Zelenskyy expressed his fears that Mr. Trump pushes a rapid resolution would result in a loss of territory for Ukraine and the vulnerability to the future Russian aggression, although the American officials said that the Ukrainian chief would be involved if and when the talks of peace really start.
Mr. Trump, however, sparked alarm and anger in Ukraine when this week he suggested that kyiv had started war and that Zelenskyy acted as a “dictator” by not holding the elections, despite the ban on Ukraine in wartime.
The Russian Foreign Minister of Foreign Affairs declared on Saturday preparations in progress for a meeting of Trump-Putin, another sign than the isolation of the Russian chief, at least for the Trump administration, began to thaw.
Reacting to the latest Russian attacks, however, Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine Minister for Foreign Affairs, said that night attack “shows that avoiding calling Russia an aggressor does not change the fact that he is one” .
“No one should trust Putin’s words. Look at her actions instead,” said Sybiha in a press release on social networks.
On Sunday, Ukrainian officials discussed an agreement that would allow the United States to access Ukrainian minerals in rare earths, a proposal that Trump administration pushes, but that Zelenskyy previously refused to accept because it was missing specific security guarantees.
During the kyiv forum where Zelenskyy made the offer to abandon his presidency in exchange for peace and members of NATO, his chief of staff Andrii Yermak said that the government was considering investment opportunities at the same time With American and European countries “which includes minerals, their development and extraction.”
Yermak left the forum earlier with the economic minister Yuliia Svyrydenko for what he said to be talks with American representatives on a potential agreement. He said that Ukraine’s mineral resources represent “a very important element which can work in the general structure of security guarantees – military and other guarantees”.
Yermak rejected the idea that Ukraine had rejected American proposals, but said that any agreement “should respond to the national interests of Ukraine, and undoubtedly, must be interesting for our partners”.
Before leaving the forum, Svyrydenko said there were $ 350 billion in minerals in the Ukrainian territories currently occupied by Russia. This calculation, however, is partly based on geological maps dating from the 1940s and 1960s, she said, adding: “We must carry out a geological exploration and confirm the deposits we have on paper.”
Meanwhile, Putin in a special television message on Sunday praised the Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine for having defended “their native land, national interests and the future of Russia”.
Putin used his speech, on the Russian defender of the Father’s Day, to promise greater social support for military staff and new weapons and equipment for the Russian forces.
“Today, while the world changes impetuous, our strategic course to strengthen and develop the armed forces remains unchanged,” he said, adding that Russia would continue to develop its armed forces “as the essential part of the Security of Russia which guarantees its present sovereign and the future.
The United Kingdom said on Sunday that it would announce new sanctions against Russia on Monday, its biggest package since the first days of war. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, David, Lammy, said that the measures would aim to “undergo [Russia’s] Military machine and income reduction fueling destruction fires in Ukraine. “”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron will do team visits to Washington this week while Europe is trying to persuade Trump not to abandon Ukraine in pursuit of a peace agreement.
Starmer told a Labor Party meeting in Scotland on Sunday: “There can be no discussion on Ukraine without Ukraine, and the inhabitants of Ukraine must have a long -term future.”
