President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on Sunday that he was willing to step down if it meant peace in Ukraine. His remark came days after President Trump questioned his legitimacy and called him a “dictator without elections,” echoing a Kremlin talking point.
At the same time, Mr. Zelensky continued to push back against Mr. Trump’s insistence that he sign a minerals deal that Ukraine says is unpalatable. And he announced a meeting on Monday of over 30 countries in person or online as a kind of coalition of support for Ukraine’s war effort.
It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Zelensky had seriously considered the option of stepping down or was merely responding to the latest jabs from Washington and Moscow. He added that he could trade his departure for Ukraine’s entry into NATO — a highly unlikely scenario given Mr. Trump’s opposition to allowing Ukraine into the military alliance.
“If peace for Ukraine requires me to step down, I’m ready,” Mr. Zelensky said during a news conference on Sunday, on the eve of the third anniversary of the war. “Another scenario — I could trade my position for NATO membership, if that’s what it takes.”
For now, Mr. Zelensky said, Ukraine and the United States remain locked in negotiations over a deal to trade Ukraine’s minerals and other natural resources for American aid. Mr. Zelensky said he was still not ready to sign the United States’ latest proposal, which would require Ukraine to pay the United States $500 billion using revenues from its natural resources.
“I am not signing something that 10 generations of Ukrainians will have to repay,” Mr. Zelensky said, noting that negotiations would continue.
On Saturday evening, President Trump ramped up pressure on Ukraine to sign the minerals deal, which has now been under negotiation for more than 10 days. Several draft agreements have already been rejected by the Ukrainian side because they did not contain specific U.S. security guarantees that would protect Kyiv against further Russian aggression.
“I think we’re pretty close to a deal, and we better be close to a deal,” Mr. Trump told the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday evening, noting that he wanted payback for past American military and financial assistance to the war-torn country. He also said, “We’re asking for rare earth and oil — anything we can get.”
Frustration over the drawn-out negotiations has fueled an escalating dispute between Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Trump. The American leader questioned Mr. Zelensky’s political legitimacy and suggested that Ukraine had started the war with Russia. The Ukrainian leader said that Mr. Trump was living in a “web of disinformation.”
On Friday, the United States proposed a new draft agreement, obtained by The New York Times, which still lacked security guarantees for Ukraine and included even tougher financial terms. The two Ukrainian officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations, said Ukraine sent back amendments on Saturday night.
The new draft agreement reiterated a U.S. demand that Ukraine relinquish half of its revenues from natural resource extraction, including minerals, gas and oil, as well as earnings from ports and other infrastructure.
Under the proposed deal, those revenues would be directed to a fund in which the United States would hold 100 percent financial interest, and Ukraine should contribute to the fund until it reaches $500 billion. That sum is more than twice the value of Ukraine’s economic output in 2021, before the war.
Mr. Zelensky said that the sum was disproportionate with the value of U.S. aid to Ukraine so far — about $120 billion, according to the Kiel Institute, a German think tank — and that he was not ready to “acknowledge” that Ukraine owed the U.S. $500 billion, “no matter what anyone says.”
Mr. Zelensky also highlighted another sticking point in the proposed deal: that Ukraine would be required to repay the United States twice the value of future American aid.
“The agreement states that for every dollar of aid, Ukraine must return two dollars,” Mr. Zelensky said on Sunday. “Simply put, it’s a 100 percent loan. I have to repay the principal plus another 100 percent on top.”
The agreement does not commit the United States to security guarantees for Ukraine, or promise further military support for Kyiv. The word “security” was even deleted from a formulation contained in a previous version of the deal, dated Feb. 14 and reviewed by The Times, which stated that both countries aimed to achieve “lasting peace and security in Ukraine.”
Instead, the agreement says that a portion of the revenues collected by the fund would be reinvested into Ukraine’s reconstruction. It also states that the United States intends to provide long-term financial support for Ukraine’s economic development, although no figure is specified.
This potential commitment aligns with an argument in the White House that the mere presence of American economic interests in Ukraine would deter future Russian aggression.
“This economic partnership would lay the foundations for a durable peace by sending a clear signal to the American people, the people of Ukraine, and the government of Russia about the importance of Ukraine’s future sovereignty and success to the U.S.,” Scott Bessent, the U.S. Treasury secretary, wrote in a Saturday opinion piece for The Financial Times.
But Mr. Zelensky pointed out that the presence of American companies in eastern Ukraine before the war had not deterred Russia from attacking and occupying those territories. “Clearly, this isn’t a 100 percent guarantee that Russians won’t go where they’ve already been,” he said on Sunday.
While Ukraine continues to negotiate the minerals deal, Moscow shows no signs of easing its attacks, with Russia launching a huge Russian drone assault on Ukrainian cities overnight. The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia had launched 267 drones, calling it a record since the war began three years ago. That claim could not be independently confirmed.
The buzz of attack drones flying over buildings echoed through the night in central Kyiv, the capital, followed by the sound of heavy machine guns trying to shoot them down. Ukraine said that most of the drones were shot down or disabled by electronic jamming, but that debris from destroyed drones damaged houses and sparked fires in parts of the capital.
