Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky says he would be willing to give up his position if it meant peace in Ukraine, adding that he could exchange his departure for his country's entry into the NATO military alliance.

"If (it means) peace for Ukraine, if you really need me to leave my post, I am ready," an irritated-looking Zelensky said when asked during a news conference whether he was ready to leave his post if it meant securing peace.

"I can exchange this for NATO (membership), if that condition is there, immediately," the president added.

US President Donald Trump has pushed for elections to take place in Ukraine, having branded Zelensky a "dictator", an apparent reference to the Ukrainian leader's official five-year term running out in 2024. Russia has cited this in the past to assert that he is an illegitimate leader.

Ukrainian legislation prohibits holding elections during a state of martial law, which Ukraine declared the day Russia invaded in February 2022. Trump also falsely claimed that Zelensky has an approval rating of four per cent.

"I am not going to be in power for decades, but we will not allow Putin to be in power over the territories of Ukraine either," Zelensky said.

A poll released this week put Zelensky's approval ratings at 63 per cent, and he made reference to this when talking about Trump's claims, calling his false statements "dangerous".

"I believe it's not a mistake, it's misinformation that has an impact," Zelensky said.

Zelensky said earlier this week Trump was in a "disinformation bubble", angering the US President and his team. This weekend he sought to justify the earlier comments."(The information) about four per cent of Ukrainians supporting me is one of the signals spread by the Russians, that's why I said it was a disinformation attack, I didn't say it was President Trump," Zelensky said.

Trump's criticism of Zelensky came as relations between the two leaders deteriorated sharply in recent weeks.

Zelensky opposes the idea of elections in a full-scale war, a position backed by his major domestic political opponents.

The Ukrainian president also said he wanted to see Trump as a partner for Ukraine and more than a simply a mediator between Kyiv and Moscow.

"I really want it to be more than just mediation... that's not enough," he told a news conference in Kyiv.

Damaged coal mines in the partly occupied Toretsk town, the site of heavy battles with the Russian troops in the Donetsk region. – AP

Trump has said Ukraine should give the US $500 billion in critical raw materials as payback for aid which Kyiv has already received from the previous Joe Biden administration.

Zelensky declined to sign a detailed US proposal last week that would have seen Washington receiving 50 per cent of Ukraine's critical minerals, which include graphite, uranium, titanium and lithium, the latter a key component in electric car batteries.

He has said he wants to do a deal, but that it should offer security guarantees for Ukraine in return.

“If your conditions are, ‘We will not give you aid if you do not sign an agreement,’ then it is clear,” Zelensky said during a news conference at a forum of government officials in Kyiv marking the three-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“If we are forced and we cannot do without it, then we should probably go for it … I just want a dialogue with President (Donald) Trump."

He said US and Ukrainian teams were working on a deal and Trump said he expects a deal will be signed soon.

This weekend Zelensky said at the news conference that he rejected the idea that Ukraine owed the US $500 billion.

"There cannot be (any) format which makes us debtors for the old (aid given)."

Zelensky said earlier this week that Washington had supplied his country with $67 billion in weapons and $31.5 billion in direct budget support throughout the nearly three-year war with Russia.

"I will not sign what 10 generations of Ukrainians will be repaying," Zelensky said of the minerals deal.

Ukraine's economy minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said the 18 per cent of Ukraine under Russian occupation contained about $350 billion of critical raw materials, adding that Ukraine is conducting additional geological research to update decades-old information.

No further details were given on the state of negotiations. Ukraine has insisted on security guarantees that it needs to deter any potential Russian aggression in the future.

Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he expects a deal this week allowing the US to play a greater role in exploiting Ukraine's mineral resources.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the administration's minerals plan was to create a US-Ukraine partnership, calling it a “win-win”.

“We make money if the Ukrainian people make money,” Bessent told Fox News.

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

Later Sunday, Yermak posted on social media that he'd spoken with US officials, including Bessent and Trump's national security adviser Mike Walz, saying it had been a “constructive conversation”.

“We are making progress ,” Yermak wrote. “The USA is our partner and we are grateful to the American people.”