KYIV, Ukraine — Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday he was ready to quit as Ukraine’s president if it meant Kyiv would be admitted to the NATO military alliance.

On the eve of the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion, Zelensky has faced fierce criticism from the new US administration. In a series of verbal attacks over the last week, US President Donald Trump has branded Zelensky a “dictator,” since he has put off elections — though this is in line with Ukrainian laws during wartime.

Trump also falsely claimed Ukraine “started” the war and said, contrary to independent opinion polls, that Zelensky was unpopular at home.

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 such a pledge.

“If there is peace for Ukraine, if you really need me to leave my post, I am ready… I can exchange it for NATO,” Zelensky told a Kyiv press conference, adding he would depart “immediately” if necessary.

Zelensky and Trump have been engaged in a war of words since US and Russian officials met last week in Saudi Arabia for their first high-level talks in three years. The move shook the West’s policy to isolate the Kremlin and infuriated Ukrainian and European leaders, as they were not invited.

Zelensky said he was not “offended” by Trump’s comments and was ready to test his popularity in elections once martial law ends in Ukraine.

“One would be offended by the word ‘dictator,’ if he was a dictator,” Zelensky told the press conference.

“I want very much from Trump understanding of each other,” he said, adding that “security guarantees” from the US president were “much needed.”

The Ukrainian leader also called for Trump to meet with him before any summit with Vladimir Putin, adding that there had been “progress” on a deal to give the United States preferential access to Ukraine’s critical resources.

“If your conditions are, ‘We will not give you aid if you do not sign an agreement,’ then it is clear,” Zelensky said. “If we are forced and we cannot do without it, then we should probably go for it… I just want a dialogue with President Trump.”

The Trump administration has pressured Zelensky to sign a deal allowing the US access to Ukrainian rare earth minerals as a form of compensation for the assistance the US has provided to Kyiv as it defends itself against Russia’s invasion.

Zelensky earlier declined to sign off on an initial US offer, arguing it did not provide Ukraine with the security guarantees it needs to deter Russian attacks.

On Sunday, Zelensky said he was open to brokering a deal that would let the US profit from his country’s minerals, but the $500 billion sum initially proposed by the Trump administration was not acceptable.

“I am not signing something that will be paid off by 10 generations of Ukrainians,” he said.

Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrii Yermak, left the Kyiv forum early on Sunday along with Economic Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko for what Yermak said were talks with US officials on a potential deal.

He said Ukraine’s mineral resources represent “a very important element that can work in the general structure of security guarantees — military guarantees and others.”

Earlier, the Kremlin hailed dialogue between Trump and Vladimir Putin — whom spokesman Dmitry Peskov called two “extraordinary” presidents — as “promising.”

“It is important that nothing prevents us from realizing the political will of the two heads of state,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state TV.

Despite Zelensky’s push for long-term security assistance and Trump talking up a peace deal, it is unclear whether the US moves can bring Moscow and Kyiv closer to a truce.

Peskov ruled out any territorial concessions as part of a settlement, and Moscow has repeatedly rejected NATO membership for Ukraine.

“The people decided to join Russia a long time ago,” Peskov said, referring to Moscow-staged votes in eastern Ukraine held during the offensive that were slammed as bogus by Kyiv, the West, and international monitors.

“No one will ever sell off these territories. That’s the most important thing,” he said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, meanwhile, called Sunday for a Ukraine peace deal that respects the country’s “territorial integrity.”

Putin, in his own comments on the eve of the anniversary of his “special military operation” in Ukraine, said “God” and “fate” were behind his “mission” to defend Russia.

“Fate willed it so, God willed it so, if I may say so. A mission as difficult as it is honorable — defending Russia — has been placed on our and your shoulders together,” he told servicemen who had fought in Ukraine.

“Today, at the risk of their lives and with courage, they are resolutely defending their homeland, national interests and Russia’s future,” Putin said in a video released by the Kremlin.

Moscow’s army launched a record 267 attack drones at Ukraine overnight, Kyiv’s air force said. Ukraine shot down or intercepted almost all of them, and there were no reports of major damage.

As its troops advance on the battlefield and it continues massive aerial attacks, Russia has reveled in the diplomatic spat between Trump and Zelensky.

“Zelensky makes inappropriate remarks addressed to the head of state. He does it repeatedly,” Peskov said.

“No president would tolerate that kind of treatment. So [Trump’s] reaction is completely quite understandable.”

Russia’s TASS news agency reported that US and Russian diplomats would meet in the next week, a follow-up to the Riyadh talks between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Meanwhile, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and other top European Union officials are set to arrive in Kyiv on Monday for talks with Ukraine’s government.

Zelensky on Sunday said he would propose a trip to a European capital in the next week or two to speak with EU leaders on security guarantees for Ukraine.

The UK on Sunday said it would announce new sanctions on Russia Monday, its biggest package since the early days of the war. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the measures would be aimed at “eroding [Russia’s] military machine and reducing revenues fueling the fires of destruction in Ukraine.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron will make tag-team visits to Washington this week as Europe attempts to persuade Trump not to abandon Ukraine in pursuit of a peace deal.

Starmer told a Labour Party gathering in Scotland on Sunday: “There can be no discussion about Ukraine without Ukraine, and the people of Ukraine must have a long-term secure future.”