INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Ukraine&s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday he was willing to give up his position if it meant peace in Ukraine, adding that he
could exchange his departure for his country&s entry into the NATO military alliance, Reuters reported.&If (it means) peace for Ukraine, if
you really need me to leave my post, I am ready,& an irritated-looking Zelenskiy said when asked during a press conference whether he was
ready to leave his post if it meant securing peace.&I can exchange this for NATO (membership), if that condition is there, immediately,& the
President Donald Trump has pushed for elections to take place in Ukraine, having branded Zelenskiy a &dictator&, an apparent reference to
the Ukrainian leader&s official five-year term running out in 2024
Russia has cited this in the past to assert that he is an illegitimate leader, read the report.Ukrainian legislation prohibits holding
elections during a state of martial law, which Ukraine declared the day Russia invaded in February 2022
Trump also falsely claimed that Zelenskiy has an approval rating of four percent.&I am not going to be in power for decades, but we will not
allow Putin to be in power over the territories of Ukraine either,& Zelenskiy said on Sunday, referring to Russian President Vladimir
Putin.A poll released this week put Zelenskiy&s approval ratings at 63%, and he made reference to this when talking about Trump&s claims on
Sunday, calling his false statements &dangerous&.&I believe it&s not a mistake, it&s misinformation that has an impact,& Zelenskiy
said.Zelenskiy said earlier this week Trump was in a &disinformation bubble&, angering the U.S
On Sunday, he sought to justify the earlier comments.&(The information) about four percent of Ukrainians supporting me is one of the signals
spread by the Russians, that&s why I said it was a disinformation attack, I didn&t say it was President Trump,& Zelenskiy said on
Sunday.Trump&s criticism of Zelenskiy came as relations between the two leaders deteriorated sharply in recent weeks.Zelenskiy opposes the
idea of elections in a full-scale war, a position backed by his major domestic political opponents.The Ukrainian president also said he
wanted to see Trump as a partner for Ukraine and more than a simply 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 has said Ukraine should give the U.S
$500 billion in critical raw materials as payback for aid which Kyiv has already received from the previous Joe Biden
administration.Zelenskiy declined to sign a detailed U.S
proposal last week that would have seen Washington receiving 50% of Ukraine&s critical minerals, which include graphite, uranium, titanium
and lithium, the latter a key component in electric car batteries, Reuters reported.He has said he wants to do a deal, but that it should
offer security guarantees for Ukraine in return.On Friday, he said U.S
and Ukrainian teams were working on a deal and Trump said he expects a deal will be signed soon.On Sunday, Zelenskiy said at the press
conference that he rejected the idea that Ukraine owed the U.S
$500 billion.&There cannot be (any) format which makes us debtors for the old (aid given).&Zelenskiy said earlier this week that Washington
had supplied his country with $67 billion in weapons and $31.5 billion in direct budget support throughout the nearly three-year war with
Russia.&I will not sign what 10 generations of Ukrainians will be repaying,& Zelenskiy said of the minerals deal.Ukraine&s economy minister
Yuliia Svyrydenko said on Sunday the 18% of Ukraine under Russian occupation contained about $350 billion of critical raw materials, adding
that Ukraine is conducting additional geological research to update decades-old information, read the report.The president&s chief of staff,
Andriy Yermak, said on Sunday that he had held constructive new talks with senior U.S
officials on a deal to develop Ukrainian minerals.&We are moving forward with our work
This was a constructive discussion,& Yermak wrote on Telegram.The post Zelenskiy says he is willing to quit presidency if it means peace in
Ukraine first appeared on Ariana News.
