Ukraine’s Zelenskiy says he is ready to leave office after war
2942 Mins Read
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Axios news website that he would be ready to step down after the war with Russia is over.
“My goal is to finish the war,” not to continue running for office, Axios quoted Zelenksiy as saying.
Zelensky said he requested a new weapons system from Donald Trump during their meeting in New York this week, telling the former president it could push Russian President Vladimir Putin toward negotiations.
In an interview with Axios on Wednesday night in Manhattan, shortly before leaving the U.N. General Assembly for Kyiv, Zelensky said he withheld the system’s name in public but disclosed it privately to Trump.
“He told me, ‘We will work on it,’” Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian leader stressed that Kyiv would not target civilians. “We are not terrorists,” he said. But he indicated that Russian centers of power — including the Kremlin — were legitimate targets.
“They have to know where the bomb shelters are,” Zelensky said of Kremlin officials. “If they will not stop the war, they will need it in any case. They have to know that we in Ukraine, each day, we will answer. If they attack us, we will answer them.”
Zelensky said Trump raised the idea of responding in kind to Russian strikes. “If they attack our energy, President Trump supports that we can answer on energy,” he said. Trump expressed the same view regarding drone factories and missile sites, Zelensky added, though he noted those targets are heavily defended.
Ukraine already has drones capable of striking deep inside Russia, Zelensky said, but he argued that the additional system he requested could hasten the war’s end.
“President Trump knows, I told him yesterday what we need — one thing,” Zelensky said. “We need it, but it doesn’t mean that we will use it. Because if we’ll have it, I think it’s additional pressure on Putin to sit and speak.”
