Zelensky Fires Back at Trump’s Calls for Elections, Says He Would Step Down if Ukraine Can Have Peace or Join NATO

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected President Donald Trump’s call for elections but said in a press conference in Kyiv Sunday that he was willing to step down in exchange for Ukraine getting peace or NATO membership.

Trump has made several unfounded attacks on Zelensky recently amid efforts to reach a peace deal to end the war, including calling Zelensky a “dictator” and blaming Ukraine when it was the Russian military under Vladimir Putin’s direction that invaded. Even some of Trump’s staunchest defenders among GOP members of Congress and Fox News’ on-air personalities have criticized the president for these remarks.

CNN anchor Fredricka Whitfield played the clip of Zelensky speaking to reporters in Kyiv during CNN Newsroom Sunday, calling it a “stunning confession” from the Ukrainian leader.

“If you really need me to leave for the sake of peace, I am ready to do so,” said Zelensky through a translator. “I am focused on security for Ukraine today, not in 20 years time. And I’m not going to hang around in power for decades.”

CNN chief international security correspondent Nick Paton Walsh was at the press conference and explained to Whitfield that the “important” context” around Zelensky’s comments about potentially resigning was that he was offering to step aside “if it brought peace to Ukraine or gave Ukraine NATO membership.”

The New York Times quoted Zelensky’s comments about NATO, through a translator: “Another scenario — I could trade my position for NATO membership, if that’s what it takes.”

Bringing Ukraine into NATO was “pretty much impossible at this point,” Paton Walsh continued, because the U.S. was firmly opposed and even if not, it would take several years.

Paton Walsh asked Zelensky directly about his relationship with Trump after this “fraught week” in which Trump had repeatedly attacked him and demanded that Ukraine agree to turn over valuable minerals rights to the U.S. with very few security guarantees.

“Do you think you can mend your relationship with President Trump,” the reporter asked, “and secondly, have the American side spelled out to you what happens if you don’t come to an agreement over this rare earth minerals deal, in terms of what it means for U.S. aid?”

“As I said, we want successful agreement,” Zelensky answered in English, “and if we will understand each other, with partners, I hope that is — will be. We will sign this — the first agreement or memo, memo, on which base we will, we will prepare other documents. So I hope that it will not have influence on other steps of the United States, and they will not cancel or stop or freeze any support, especially military support, to Ukraine. That is crucial for us.”

“And the president?” asked Paton Walsh.

“My relationship with President Trump?” Zelensky started his reply and then fussed with his microphone cord for a few moments and shook his head as scattered laughs could be heard in the audience. “It’s never was in such — best way,” he eventually said, to more laugh.

Paton Walsh mentioned the laughter as he described the moment to Whitfield, calling it a reflection of “the exceptionally awkward and complex reality” of the “animosity” between Zelensky and Trump.

The reporter added that Zelensky had pushed back on Trump’s calls for Ukraine to pay back money granted during the Biden administration, saying the Ukrainian president had been “clear” that these funds were “bipartisan, congressionally approved grants and not something that they consider they need to pay back.” Additionally, Zelensky had rejected the proposal for $500 billion rare earth minerals as something he “couldn’t possibly accept,” and even the $100 billion figure that had been mentioned recently did not seem to have much traction either.

“It was very clear hearing him talk, that we are far away in terms of Ukraine’s perception from a deal being signed,” said Paton Walsh. There were private negotiations going on and some “progress being made,” but so far it looked like “a stark deal that is very much not in Ukraine’s favor,” with “very few security guarantees, if none at all, potentially on offer, and that also that awkwardness between Trump and Zelensky clearly on show there.”

Still, he concluded, to was notable to have seen Zelensky for the first time, and in a public forum, to be “talking about maybe he could step aside if it made peace happen for Ukraine.”

The Ukrainian Constitution suspends elections during periods of martial law — which has been repeatedly reauthorized by the country’s parliament — and for six months afterwards. Ukrainian officials, including opposition party leaders, have voiced support for the suspension of elections due to the millions of Ukrainians who have fled as refugees or are fighting on the front lines, the areas under Russian occupation control, concerns about diverting resources while the war still rages on, and worries about Russians targeting polling places as they have schools and hospitals and other civilian areas.

Watch the clip above via CNN.