Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said yesterday he regretted last week’s extraordinary Oval Office clash with Donald Trump and wanted to ‘make things right’, adding that Kyiv was ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible.
In a fulsome statement issued a day after Trump halted military aid to Ukraine, Zelenskiy said he was ready to sign “any time and in any convenient format” a deal giving the United States access to Ukrainian minerals. He had left the deal on the table when he abandoned a visit to Washington after an Oval Office argument with Trump on Friday.
“None of us wants an endless war. Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians,” Zelenskiy said in his statement on X.
“My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.” The statement made no mention of the pause in US military supplies, the latest move by Trump to upend US policy on Ukraine and adopt a more conciliatory stance towards Russia. But the statement was clearly aimed at stressing Kyiv’s gratitude amid the fallout from the explosive confrontation at the White House on Friday, during which Trump and Vice President JD Vance upbraided Zelenskiy for being insufficiently appreciative of US backing and their efforts to end the war.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said afterwards that Zelenskiy should apologise.
“We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence,” Zelenskiy wrote. “Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go the way it was supposed to be. It is regrettable that it happened this way. It is time to make things right.”
Zelenskiy outlined a path towards a peace agreement, which he said could begin with a release of prisoners and a halt to air and sea attacks, if Russia did the same.
“Then we want to move very fast through all next stages and to work with the US to agree a strong final deal.”
Earlier, Zelenskiy’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said Ukraine’s forces could hold their own on the battlefield against Russian troops, but that Kyiv would do everything possible so that cooperation with the United States would continue.
“We will continue to work with the US through all available channels in a calm manner,” Shmyhal said. “We only have one plan – to win and to survive. Either we win, or the Plan B will be written by someone else.”
The Kremlin, for its part, said cutting off military aid to Ukraine was the best possible step towards peace, although it was still waiting to confirm Trump’s move.
The pause puts more pressure on European allies who have publicly embraced Zelenskiy since the Oval Office blow-up, led by Britain and France whose leaders both visited the White House last week and have offered troops to help guard a potential ceasefire. Europeans are racing to boost their own military spending. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen yesterday unveiled proposals to raise spending on defence in the EU, which she said could mobilise up to $840 billion. The 27-nation bloc is holding an emergency summit tomorrow.
France’s Prime Minister Francois Bayou was sharply critical of Trump’s move. “Suspending aid during a war to a country under attack means abandoning the country under attack and accepting or hoping that the aggressor will win,” he said during a parliamentary debate.
n US President Donald Trump’s administration and Ukraine plan to sign the much-debated minerals deal following a disastrous Oval Office meeting on Friday in which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was dismissed from the building, sources familiar with the situation said yesterday.
Trump has told his advisers that he wants to announce the agreement in his address to Congress yesterday evening, three of the sources said cautioning that the deal had yet to be signed and the situation could change.
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