Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has held out an olive branch to United States President Donald Trump by saying their clash in the Oval Office was “regrettable” and he wanted to "make things right".
In a social media post, the Ukrainian leader stopped short of apologising to his American counterpart, as demanded by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the wake of the televised clash with Trump and Vice-President J.D. Vance last Friday, in which they called him ungrateful for U.S. support for his nation.
“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, Zelenskky wrote in the post on X.
“We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive. Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it in any time and in any convenient format.”
Zelenskyy left the meeting and Washington early without signing a mineral deal with the U.S. to fly to London to attend a summit of European leaders who showed their support for him and Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself against Russia.
Trump had escalated the war of words by criticising Zelenskyy for telling reporters in London that in London that a deal to end the war “is still very, very far away”.
In the long post the Ukrainian President reiterated his country’s commitment to peace and said Ukraine was ready to come to the negotiating table.
“My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts,” he wrote.
The first steps to end the conflict could be the release of prisoners and a truce in the sky with bans on missiles, long-ranged drones and bombings of energy and other civilian infrastructure, and a truce in the sea if Russia would do 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. We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence,” Zelensky wrote.
In an interview Rubio had called on Zelensky to “apologise for turning this thing into the fiasco for him that it became.”
