Foreign News
Zelensky willing to give up presidency in exchange for Nato membership
Volodymyr Zelensky said he would be willing to “give up” his presidency in exchange for peace ahead of the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“If you need me to leave this chair, I am ready to do that. And I also can exchange it for Nato membership for Ukraine,” the Ukrainian president said in response to a question during a news conference.
His comments came after US President Donald Trump called Zelensky a “dictator without elections” earlier in the week.
“I wasn’t offended by the comment, but a dictator would be,” Zelensky, who was democratically elected in May 2019, responded on Sunday.
Zelensky said he was currently focused on Ukraine’s security and it was not his “dream” to remain president for a decade.
Ukrainian legislation bans elections during martial law, which has been in place since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
EU and world leaders are due to head to Kyiv on Monday to show their support for Ukraine and discuss security guarantees.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are among those expected to attend the meeting in person.
Zelensky said the topic of Ukraine joining Nato would be “on the table” at the meeting but he did not know how the discussions would “finish”. He said he hoped the meeting would be a “turning point”.
On the topic of Trump, Zelensky said that he wanted to see the US president as a partner to Ukraine and more than a mediator between Kyiv and Moscow.
“I really want it to be more than just mediation…that’s not enough,” he told the press conference. His comments come as political leaders in Europe fear Kyiv is being sidelined in talks to bring an end to the war.
Zelensky was also asked about a potential deal the Trump administration has pushed for to provide the US access to Ukrainian rare earth minerals.
“We are making progress,” Zelensky said, adding that Ukrainian and US officials had been in touch about the deal.
“We are ready to share,” the Ukrainian leader said, but made clear that Washington first needed to ensure Russian President Vladimir Putin “ends this war”.
Zelensky’s press conference came hours after Russia launched its largest single drone attack on Ukraine yet during the current conflict, Ukrainian officials said.
On Saturday night, Ukraine’s Air Force Command spokesman Yuriy Ignat said a “record” 267 Russian drones were launched in a single, coordinated attack on the country.
Thirteen regions were targeted and while many of the drones were repelled, those that were not caused destruction to infrastructure and at least three casualties, emergency services said.
Ukraine’s Air Force reported that 138 of the drones were shot down and 119, which were decoy drones, were lost without negative consequences, likely due to jamming.
In Kyiv, the attack meant six hours of air alerts.
In a statement, Zelensky claimed that 1,150 drones, 1,400 bombs and 35 missiles were launched by Russia this week.
He thanked Ukraine’s emergency services for their response to Saturday night’s attack and called for the support of Europe and US in facilitating “a lasting and just peace”.
In a post on X, Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska said that “hundreds of drones” had “brought death and destruction” overnight.
“It was another night of explosions, burning houses and cars, and destroyed infrastructure,” she wrote. “Another night when people prayed for their loved ones to survive”.
On Monday, the war will enter its third year.
As it does, diplomatic wrangling over a potential peace deal continue, with Ukraine, European allies and the US offering differing visions for how to end the conflict.
The US and Russia held preliminary talks in Saudi Arabia this week – without delegates from Europe, including Ukraine, present – which resulted in European leaders holding a hastily-arranged summit in Paris.
Zelensky criticised Ukraine’s exclusion from the US-Russia talks, saying Trump was “living in a disinformation space” governed by Moscow, prompting Trump to respond by calling the Ukrainian president a dictator.
French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to visit Washington on Monday, while UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will be there on Thursday.
Sir Keir has publicly backed Zelensky, reiterating the UK’s iornclad support for Kyiv, said he would discuss the importance of Ukraine’s sovereignty when he speaks to Trump.
Pope Francis – who is in hospital with respiratory illness – wrote in a remarks released on Sunday that the third anniversary of the war was “a painful and shameful occasion for the whole of humanity”.
[BBC]
Three Americans convicted for their role in a failed coup in Democratic Republic of Congo last year have had their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment, the presidency has said.
They were among 37 people sentenced to death last September by a military court.
The three were accused of leading an attack on both the presidential palace and the home of an ally of President Félix Tshisekedi last May.
The overturning of the sentences comes ahead of a visit to DR Congo by the newly appointed US senior advisor for Africa, Massad Boulos.
Boulos, father-in-law to President Donald Trump’s daughter, Tiffany, is expected to arrive in Kinshasa on Thursday on a trip that will also take him to Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda.
The US has not declared the three Americans to be wrongfully jailed in DR Congo but the State Department said previously there have been talks between the countries over the matter.
The three were convicted of criminal conspiracy, terrorism and other charges, which they denied.
[BBC]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has nominated a former Navy commander to head the country’s domestic security services, despite the courts having blocked his bid to fire the previous head of Shin Bet.
Netanyahu’s office announced on Monday that he had nominated Vice Admiral Eli Sharvit to lead the agency, which surveils attacks from abroad and at home, including by armed groups based in Palestine and Lebanon. However, a halt to the sacking of Ronen Bar as head of Shin Bet, ordered by the Supreme Court, remains in place.
[Aljazeera]
The Trump administration has deported 17 more alleged gang members to El Salvador, the US state department has said, despite legal battles over removing people to the Central American country’s supermax prison.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the group included members of the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs.
Salvadoran government officials told the BBC they included a mix of Venezuelans and Salvadorans.
Earlier this month a court ordered a halt to deportations carried out under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law previously used only in wartime. However, US media, citing administration sources, reported that the recent deportations were made under general immigration laws.
In a statement, Rubio said the group included “murderers and rapists”, but did not provide names or details of the alleged crimes or of any convictions.
In a post on X, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele shared a dramatically edited video showing shackled men being loaded off a plane and their heads being shaved before they were put into prison cells.
“All individuals are confirmed murderers and high-profile offenders, including six child rapists,” he wrote. “This operation is another step in the fight against terrorism and organized crime.”
President Trump reposted the message, blamed the administration of his predecessor Joe Biden for allowing the deportees into the US and thanked Bukele for “giving them such a wonderful place to live”.
El Salvador has agreed to take in deportees in exchange for $6m (£4.6m).
Family members of some of those who were previously sent to the maximum security prison have denied they have any gang ties.
After Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to remove more than 100 Venezuelans from the US earlier this month, groups including the American Civil Liberties Union filed a legal challenge alleging the administration had illegally denied the immigrants due process.
In a hearing on 15 March, James Boasberg, the top federal judge in Washington DC, imposed a temporary restraining order on the use of the law and ordered deportation flights that were in the air to be turned around.
But the deportations proceeded. The next hearing in the case will be held on Thursday.
[BBC]
Death sentence for three Americans over DR Congo coup attempt overturned
Food Policy and Security Committee recommends importation of rice to ensure an uninterrupted supply
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