Volodymyr Zelensky puts his post into play. The Ukrainian president said he was ready this Sunday to leave his position “immediately” in exchange for Ukraine membership in NATO, an integration in which Washington seems to oppose the background of increasing tensions between kyiv and Donald Trump.
“If you really need to leave my post, I am ready,” said the Ukrainian president at a press conference in kyiv, “I can exchange (the presidency) for NATO (membership),” he added, when President Trump called him “dictator”.
“I certainly would not describe the words used by Trump as a compliment. Someone would be offended by the word dictator if he was a dictator, ”said Volodymyr Zelensky. “I am a legitimately elected president,” he added, assuring not wishing to remain “in power for decades”.
At the same time, the Ukrainian head of state also demanded “on the part of Trump a mutual understanding”, considering “security guarantees” on his part “essential”. Clearly: Volodymyr Zelensky wants the United States to commit to help Ukraine protect himself from a new Russian assault, after a possible end of hostilities.
Tensions entre Washington et Kiev
These statements arise as American support in kyiv seems to be crumbling day after day, under the leadership of a Donald Trump who frequently takes up the rhetoric of Kremlin.
On Saturday, the American president also hammered that he wanted to “recover” the amount of aid provided to Ukraine since the start of the war against Russia. The United States claimed from kyiv a privileged access to Ukrainian strategic ores, in exchange for the aid paid since the start of the Russian invasion three years ago. “We ask for rare earths and oil, anything you can get,” said Trump.
In this regard, Volodymyr Zelensky said this Saturday that discussions between Washington and kyiv “progress”. Officials of the two parties were in contact with the agreement on Ukrainian minerals, said the president. But “I will not sign something that will be paid by ten generations of Ukrainians,” he warned.
“We have to meet and talk about” the mineral agreement with the United States, said Volodymyr Zelensky. “I think this meeting must be fair, that is to say (take place) before Trump meets Putin,” he developed.
On the ground, the situation remains difficult for Ukraine, very dependent on Western aid in the face of the Russian army, which has progressed in recent months in the East. A Russian attack using three guided bombs in Kostiantynivka, an important Ukrainian bastion in the East, killed a dead, a woman, in a residential building, according to the authorities. And the capital kyiv was affected during the night from Saturday to Sunday by an attack which did damage in several districts, without a victim noted immediately.
Three years of conflict
While the UN General Assembly meets on Monday to mark the third anniversary of the conflict, Washington proposed a draft resolution which does not mention respect for the territorial integrity of this country. “A good idea,” reacted the Russian ambassador to the United Nations Vassili Nebenzia.
This text, which includes only 65 words, has a call for “a rapid end of the conflict” and “a lasting peace”, a vague and laconic formulation, very far from the previous resolutions of the Assembly which clearly supported Ukraine.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged UN member states to vote for this new “historic” resolution in order to “trace a path to peace”, however that Donald Trump judged that Ukraine had “no card in hand” and that the presence of Volodymyr Zelensky in negotiations with Russia was “not important”.
Dearned by the sudden American-Russian dialogue on Ukraine, most European countries seek to oppose it, fearing that Donald Trump would end the war on conditions favorable to Moscow without providing security guarantees to kyiv and Europe.
Now is the time to “tighten the screw against Putin’s Russia,” argued British diplomacy David Lammy, announcing that London would unveil a “important sanction gear” on Moscow on Mosse.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who spoke on Saturday with Volodymyr Zelensky and the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, goes to Washington on Thursday. He will be preceded on Monday by Emmanuel Macron.