{"id":18745,"date":"2025-03-03T18:47:49","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T13:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=18745"},"modified":"2025-03-03T18:47:49","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T13:02:49","slug":"zelensky-says-will-not-be-simple-to-replace-him-as-ukraine-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/zelensky-says-will-not-be-simple-to-replace-him-as-ukraine-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"Zelensky says &#8216;will not be simple&#8217; to replace him as Ukraine leader"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>Volodymyr Zelensky told British media Sunday it would not be easy to replace him as Ukraine&#8217;s president, but repeated his offer to step down in exchange for NATO membership for his war-torn country.<\/p>\n<p>US Republicans had suggested he may have to resign after US President Donald Trump dramatically turned against him during a contentious Oval Office meeting about the war with Russia on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If they replace me, given what is going on, given the support, simply replacing me will not be simple,&#8221; Zelensky told British media.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not enough to just hold an election. You need to also not let me run. This will be a bit more difficult. Looks like you will have to negotiate with me,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And I said that I am exchanging for NATO. Then I fulfilled my mission.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The unprecedented public spat at the Oval Office resulted in Zelensky leaving the White House without the anticipated signing of a preliminary pact on sharing Ukrainian mineral rights.<\/p>\n<p>While European leaders rallied around Ukraine, Republican officials appeared Sunday on news programs questioning whether any deal could be reached with Russia so long as Zelensky remains.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We need a leader that can deal with us, eventually deal with the Russians, and end this war,&#8221; National Security Advisor Mike Waltz told CNN.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And if it becomes apparent that President Zelensky&#8217;s either personal motivations or political motivations are divergent from ending the fighting in this country, then I think we have a real issue.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Republican Mike Johnson, speaker of the House of Representatives, also questioned whether Zelensky was fit for the job.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Either he needs to come to his senses and come back to the table in gratitude, or someone else needs to lead the country.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Senior Democrats have angrily pushed back since the debacle Friday, saying Trump has come dangerously close to an all-out embrace of Russia.<\/p>\n<p>Zelensky has been calling for Ukraine to be given NATO membership as part of any deal to end the war, but the Washington-led alliance has been reluctant to make a pledge.<\/p>\n<p>Trump said in February that Ukraine can &#8220;forget about&#8221; joining NATO in any settlement, explaining: &#8220;I think that&#8217;s probably the reason the whole thing started.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Russia cited potential Ukrainian membership in NATO as a reason for its invasion three years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Volodymyr Zelensky told British media Sunday it would not be easy to replace him as Ukraine&#8217;s president, but repeated his offer to step down in exchange for NATO membership for his war-torn country. US Republicans had suggested he may have to resign after US President Donald Trump dramatically turned against him during a contentious Oval [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18745"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18745"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18746,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18745\/revisions\/18746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}