Donald Trump has said he appreciated Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s willingness to sign a minerals deal with the United States and come to the negotiating table to bring a lasting peace in Ukraine closer.
“Earlier today, I received an important letter from President Zelenskyy of Ukraine,” the US president said in a speech to Congress after last week’s disastrous meeting at the White House. Quoting from the letter, Trump said Zelenskyy told him that “Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians.”
“My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts,” Trump quoted Zelenskyy as writing. “We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence.”
Trump also said he had been in “serious discussions with Russia” and claimed he had “received strong signals that they are ready for peace”.
“Wouldn’t that be beautiful?” he said. “It’s time to stop this madness. It’s time to halt the killing. It’s time to end this senseless war. If you want to end wars you have to talk to both sides.”
The comments marked a slight softening of Trump’s language on Ukraine in the wake of the Oval Office clash, after which he ordered a pause on all US military aid to Ukraine.
Trump was expected to further outline his plans for Ukraine and Russia in the speech to Congress, but did not reveal any more details.
In the same speech Trump said that he would take control of Greenland “one way or another”, adding that the US was ready to accept the people of the Danish territory, during a speech that escalated the rhetoric surrounding his territorial ambitions in the western hemisphere.
He defended recent foreign policy moves including the introduction of new tariffs against Mexico and Canada that the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, had called a “very dumb thing to do”.
Trump claimed that the US would be “reclaiming” the Panama canal, “and we’ve already started doing it”.
The US president said the US needed Greenland, which is controlled by Denmark, for “national security and even international security”, adding: “I think we’re going to get it – one way or the other, we’re going to get it.”
“I also have a message tonight for the incredible people of Greenland,” he said during his speech, as both the vice-president, JD Vance, and the house speaker, Mike Johnson, smiled behind him. “We strongly support your right to determine your own future. And if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America.”
“We will keep you safe,” he said. “We will make you rich.”
On the Panama canal, he reacted positively to news that a China-headquartered company had sold two ports near the canal to American-owned BlackRock. Trump had claimed the ports could be used to exert Chinese control over the canal, and recounted that the canal was “built by Americans for Americans, not for others. But others could use it.”
“We didn’t give it to China; we gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back,” he said during the speech.
He also gave a backhanded compliment to his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who recently travelled to Panama during a Latin American tour that was largely focused on migration and efforts to regain control over the canal.
“We have Marco Rubio in charge,” Trump said with relish. “Good luck, Marco. Now we know who to blame if anything goes wrong.”
