Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Sen. Lindsey Graham that if he wanted a say in who should be president of Ukraine he should become a Ukrainian citizen after the Republican lawmaker called for him to resign.
“I can give [Lindsey Graham] citizenship of Ukraine, and he will become a citizen of our country. And then his voice will start to gain weight, and I will hear him as a citizen of Ukraine on the topic of who must be the president,” Zelenskyy told the press at Stansted Airport in the U.K..
“The president of Ukraine will have to be chosen not in Lindsey Graham’s home but in Ukraine,” Zelenskyy added.
Zelenskyy was responding to comments made by Graham on Fox News Friday after Donald Trump’s meltdown in the Oval Office during a meeting with the Ukrainian leader.
“This was a missed opportunity, and the question for me for the Ukrainian people: I don’t know if Zelenskyy can ever get you to where you want to go with the United States,” Graham said. “Either he dramatically changes, or you need to get somebody new.”
Zelenskyy told reporters in the U.K.: “To change me, it will not be easy because it is not enough to simply hold elections. You would need to prevent me from participating. And it will be a bit more difficult.”
Graham responded to Zelenskyy in a post on X, writing: “Unfortunately, until there is an election, no one has a voice in Ukraine.”
Zelenskyy was elected in a landslide in 2019, but his term expired last May. However, Ukraine’s constitution allows for elections to be postponed under martial law, which was invoked because of Russia’s invasion.
Last week, all 268 parliament members present voted unanimously to approve a resolution affirming the legitimacy of President Zelenskyy’s stay in office while the country remains under martial law.
