Zelenskyy Breaks Silence After Fiery White House Meeting With Trump

The Ukrainian president thanked the Trump administration and the American people for their support, in his first remarks since a tense White House meeting.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has issued his first public remarks after a fiery Oval Office exchange with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Friday that raised questions about the fate of the potential U.S.–Ukraine minerals deal that would have brought the two countries together and served as a bulwark against Russian aggression.

“Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on X. “Thank you @POTUS. Congress, and the American people. Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that.”

Zelenskyy’s post marked his first public comment since a heated White House meeting with Trump and Vance, where the three argued over Ukraine’s leverage and whether Zelenskyy had expressed sufficient gratitude to the United States for its long-running support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

It was the first meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy since Trump’s inauguration in January, with expectations that Zelenskyy would sign a U.S.–Ukraine economic partnership deal granting the United States access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals and other resources that are critical for aerospace, defense, and nuclear industries.

The agreement would create a joint U.S.–Ukraine reconstruction fund, co-managed by both nations, with Kyiv contributing 50 percent of future proceeds from state-owned natural resources. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the deal as both safeguarding U.S. taxpayer interests and fueling Ukraine’s postwar recovery, transforming the war-ravaged country into a stable, prosperous one.

Zelenskyy has stressed that any such deal would require U.S. security guarantees, which Kyiv considers essential. Trump has been reluctant to grant such guarantees, however, arguing that Europe should take the lead since it is more directly affected by the Russia–Ukraine conflict. He has argued that a U.S. presence in Ukraine’s mineral sector would deter Russian aggression, effectively providing “automatic security.”

“Security is so easy. That’s about 2 percent of the problem. I’m not worried about security. I’m worried about getting the deal done. The security is the easy part,” Trump said during a Friday meeting with Zelenskyy in front of media outlets in the Oval Office.

As the two leaders took questions from the media, their differing expectations on security commitments became clear.

By Tom Ozimek

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