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Zelenskyy's offer to resign for NATO membership
Summary
A look back at 23 February 2025, when Ukraine's president tied his own departure to NATO accession amid pressure from Washington over elections.
What did Volodymyr Zelenskyy put on the table on 23 February 2025? Ukraine's president said he was ready to resign from the presidency in exchange for NATO accession, as part of a potential peace agreement.
The remark came after a week of sharp exchanges over Ukraine's leadership. On 18 February 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump called for a new presidential election in Ukraine as part of a peace deal with Russia. The next day, 19 February, he called Zelenskyy a "dictator", said he had done a "terrible job" and warned that Zelenskyy was not going to have a country left soon. The reports described relations between Kyiv and Washington as deteriorating.
Talks without Kyiv or Europe
The diplomacy around the war was moving on other tracks. On 19 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin praised high-level talks with the United States in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, calling them a "first step" towards restoring full diplomatic ties with the United States. On 17 February, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said Europe had no role in any peace negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine.
The election question
As later background explains, no presidential election had been held in Ukraine in 2024, although one had been scheduled for March or April of that year. Ukrainian law does not allow presidential elections while martial law is in effect, and martial law had been in force since 24 February 2022. It was extended in 90-day intervals with parliament's approval. By the time of this retrospective it had been extended for the 20th time, until 31 October 2026.
Against that backdrop, Zelenskyy's statement on 23 February 2025 linked two issues: his own tenure and Ukraine's route into NATO.
