Give Ukraine NATO membership and I’ll quit: Volodymyr Zelensky

Volodymyr Zelensky said he was ready to quit as Ukraine’s President if it meant Kyiv would be ­admitted to NATO.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv. Picture: Getty Images

Volodymyr Zelensky said he was ready to quit as Ukraine’s President if it meant Kyiv would be ­admitted to the NATO military alliance.

Mr Zelensky, who has faced fierce criticism from the new US administration, also said he wanted to meet Donald Trump before the US President meets his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Mr Zelensky has been calling for Ukraine to be given NATO membership as part of any deal to end the war, but the Washington-led alliance has been reluctant to commit.

“If there is peace for Ukraine, if you really need me to leave my post, I am ready,” Mr Zelensky told a Kyiv news conference. “I can exchange it for NATO.”

Mr Zelensky and Mr Trump have been engaged in a war of words since US and Russian officials met last week in Saudi Arabia for their first high-level talks in three years.

The move undermined the West’s policy of isolating the Kremlin and infuriated Ukrainian and European leaders, excluded from the meeting.

In recent days, Mr Trump has branded Mr Zelensky a “dictator”, falsely claimed Ukraine “started” the war, and claimed, contrary to independent opinion polls, that the Ukrainian leader was unpopular at home. Mr Zelensky said he was not “offended” by Mr Trump’s comments and was ready to test his popularity in elections once martial law ends in Ukraine.

“I very much want from Trump an understanding of each other,” he said, adding that “security guarantees” from the US President were “much needed”.

The Ukrainian leader also called for Mr Trump to meet him before any summit with Putin.

There had been “progress”, he added, on a deal to give the US preferential access to Ukraine’s critical resources.

Mr Trump said he was adamant he would get money back for the billions of dollars sent to support Ukraine’s war against Russia.

His comments came as Washington and Kyiv negotiate a mineral resources deal Mr Trump wants as compensation for the wartime aid his predecessor Joe Biden gave Ukraine.

It was the latest twist in a whirlwind first month since he took ­office, during which he has upended US foreign policy by making diplomatic overtures towards the Kremlin over the heads of Ukraine and Europe.

Mr Trump told delegates at the Conservative Political Action Conference near Washington: “I’m trying to get the money back, or secured.

“I want them to give us something for all of the money that we put up. We’re asking for rare earth and oil, anything we can get.

“We’re going to get our money back because it’s just not fair. And we will see, but I think we’re pretty close to a deal, and we better be close because that has been a horrible situation.”

Hours earlier, a source said Mr Zelensky was “not ready” to sign such a deal, despite growing US pressure.

Mr Trump’s special envoy. Keith Kellogg, who met Mr Zelensky last week, said the Ukrainian President understood signing a deal with the US was “critical”.

But the Ukrainian source said Kyiv needed assurances first.

“In the form in which the draft is now, the President is not ready to accept, we are still trying to make changes and add constructiveness,” the source added.

Ukraine wants any agreement signed with the US to include ­security guarantees as it battles Russia’s three-year invasion.

The negotiations between the two countries come amid a deepening war of words between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky that has raised alarm in Kyiv and ­Europe.

On Wednesday, Mr Trump branded his Ukrainian counterpart a “dictator” and called for him to “move fast” to end the war, a day after Russian and US officials held talks in Saudi Arabia without Kyiv.

Washington has proposed a United Nations resolution on the Ukraine conflict that omitted any mention of Kyiv’s territory occupied by Russia, diplomatic sources said.

The Times, AFP