Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky remains hopeful he can salvage his relationship with Donald Trump, after a meeting intended to cement a U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal descended into members of the Republican administration berating the visiting leader in front of news cameras.
“Yes, of course,” Zelensky said Friday in an interview with Fox News, touting the ties between the people of America and Ukraine. “It’s more than two presidents. The historical relations, strong relations, between our people.”
“This is the most important—and of course [we’re] thankful to the president and to Congress—but first of all to your people,” Zelensky continued. “Your people helped to save our people.”
Zelensky will have his work cut out for him.
After the Oval Office blowup, which began when Zelensky reminded his hosts of the numerous times Russia has broken ceasefire deals that didn’t include security guarantees, Trump cast doubt on the future of the minerals deal.
A White House official told The Independent that the minerals deal was not signed on Friday, and Trump later accused Zelensky of being uninterested in seeking an overall peace.
“I would say it didn’t work out exactly great from his standpoint. He very much overplayed his hand,” Trump said after the meeting. “We’re looking for peace. We’re not looking for somebody that’s going to sign up a strong power and then not make peace because they feel emboldened, and that’s what I saw happening.”
During both the White House meeting and his subsequent Fox News interview, Zelensky argued that some form of security guarantee from the U.S. or European nations would be a key factor in reaching a genuine end to the war, given the numerous times Russia has violated previous agreements to end the conflict in the absence of such protections.
“Everybody is afraid Putin will come back tomorrow,” Zelensky told anchor Brett Baier, adding, “It’s about just and lasting peace. We have to be very strong at the table of negotiations.”
The Ukrainian leader argues security guarantees could come in the form of a European contingent of troops stationed in Ukraine, or further indications that the U.S. proactively sides with Ukraine in the conflict.
It was this line of discussion that set off Trump and Vice President JD Vance during the White House meeting.
“I think it's disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media,” an incensed Vice President Vance told Zelensky during the talks.
Trump officials continued to fume after the meeting. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt described Zelensky as “rude” and “antagonistic” in the face of U.S. goodwill.
After the talks, Zelensky said he did not feel he had anything to apologize for, though he admitted the public sparring was “not good.”
“I respect [the] president and I respect [the] American people. I think that we have to be very open and very honest,” he said. “And I’m not sure that we did something bad.”
The stunning diplomatic breakdown follows growing agitation in the relationship between the U.S. and Ukraine.
In recent weeks, Trump has put considerable distance between himself and Zelensky, accusing the Ukrainian of being a dictator and falsely claiming he started the war with Putin, while the White House sidelined Ukraine and has pursued direct negotiations with Russia.
Zelensky, for his part, suggested on Friday in the Fox interview that the U.S. seemed to be shifting from an ally of Ukraine to a more neutral stance on the conflict.
“I want him to be more at our side,” the Ukrainian said of Trump, though he admitted that when it comes to ironing out issues in their partnership, “maybe sometimes some things we have to discuss out of the media.”
On Friday, the fallout continued beyond just the White House.
Senator Lindsey Graham, one of Ukraine’s most vocal supporters with the GOP, suggested after the meeting that Zelensky “either needs to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with, or he needs to change.”
Top Democrats, meanwhile, criticized the Trump administration.
“What just happened in the Oval Office was a planned ambush, designed to help a brutal Russian dictator and hurt America's security,” Senator Chris Murphy wrote on X. “Trump has become Putin's lapdog, and America's global power is hemorrhaging as America sides with dictators over democracy. What an embarrassment.”
Andrew Feinberg contributed reporting to this story.
