The meeting between US presidents, Donald Trump, and Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelesnykyy, ended without the signing of the agreement for kyiv's rare land minerals after a tense conversation between both presidents in the White House. Hours later the two spoke about what happened.
A meeting at the White House between President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who sought to close an agreement for the United States to access kyiv's rare land minerals, became a tense meeting between the two leaders.
“Or you're going to make a deal or leave,” Trump told Zelenskyy.
In a statement in social networks after the meeting, Trump indicated that the proposed agreement will not be realized.
“I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for peace if the United States is involved,” Trump wrote. “You can return when you are prepared for peace.”
Zelenskyy said during the meeting, in which the United States vice president JD Vance also participated: “People are dying (…) are running out of soldiers,” said the Ukrainian president in one of the tense moments of the conversation.
According to Trump, Zelenskyy “lacked respect for the United States of America in his dear oval office.”
The heated exchange, witnessed by dozens of American and Ukrainian journalists in the Oval office, adopted a combative tone for about 40 minutes. Zelenskyy's mention of Crimea's Russian invasion in 2014 was among them.
Vice President Vance immediately criticized Zelenskyy, accusing him of participating in a “propaganda tour.”
“I think it's a disrespect for you to come to the Oval office to try to litigate this in front of US media,” he told Zelenskyy.
Both Vance and Trump accused the Ukrainian leader of not being grateful for the help his country has received from Washington.
Zelenskyy, raising the voice, replied: “I have said many times thanks to the American people.”
“You don't have the cards at this time. Once we sign the agreement, you will be in a much better position. But you are not being grateful at all, and that is not a pleasant. I will be honest. That is not pleasant, ”Trump said sitting next to Zelenskyy, who tried to refute him.
Zelenskyy ordered Trump directly to “not make commitments to a murderer.” Trump, on the other hand, said Putin wants to reach an agreement. “You are playing with the lives of millions of people. You are playing with the third world war, ”he told the Ukrainian leader.
Zelenskyy left the White House without participating in a programmed joint press conference.
Trump and Zelenskyy talk about what happened
Despite the abrupt end of the meeting, the Ukrainian leader resorted to social networks almost immediately to address the American public and leadership of his country.
“Thank you, United States,” Zelenskyy published on the social network X. “Thank you @potus, to the American Congress and people. Ukraine needs a fair and lasting peace, and we are working precisely to achieve it. ”
Hours later, when he left the White House, President Trump addressed the journalists who waited for him and answered some questions about what happened.
He insisted that a high fire between Ukraine and Russia can occur immediately and said that the US seeks peace, “not a 10 -year war.” He considered that Zelenskyy wants to “fight, fight, fight” and that for conversations with him, he would have to say that he wants peace.
Later, in an interview with Fox News, The Ukrainian leader said he respects President Trump and the American people, admitted that it is difficult for Ukraine “to stop Russia without the United States support” and said he does not want to lose “our great partners.” He said he can recover the relationship with Trump and that he expects “to be more on our side.”
European leaders reacted to the tense meeting In the White House, while the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jefferies, said in a statement: “For three years, President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people have been on the side of democracy, freedom and truth. His success is in the interest of the national security of the United States. We must support Ukraine until victory is achieved.”
Mining Agreement
Before the meeting, Trump said he was close to signing the agreement for the rare earths of Ukraine with Zelenskyy.
“We have something that is a very fair treatment and we are eager to enter and dig, dig, dig and work and get some rare earths,” Trump told a visibly uncomfortable Zelenskyy.
The agreement includes provisions for the co -ownership and management of a postwar reconstruction fund for Ukraine, to which Ukraine will allocate 50 % of future income from the country's natural resources.
But a White House spokesman said the agreement was not signed.
Trump has characterized the Mineral Agreement as a type of “support” instead of guaranteeing support for European peace forces in Ukraine after he finished his war with Russia.
“It means that we will be inside and it is a great commitment from the United States,” he said.
The agreement establishes that the United States will maintain a “long -term financial commitment to the development of a stable and economically prosperous Ukraine.” It does not make any direct reference to the efforts to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine or the future security agreements, except for a single line: “The United States government of America supports Ukraine's efforts to obtain the necessary security guarantees to establish a lasting peace.”
Beyond the Mineral Agreement, Trump has not committed to providing security guarantees to support European peace forces in order to enforce a future truce between Ukraine and Russia, as demanded by France, Great Britain and other NATO allies.
“I don't like talking about peace maintenance until we have an agreement,” Trump said during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Kier Starmer on Thursday at the White House.
It has not been specified how much the agreement would be worth for the United States. Trump has said he hopes to win hundreds of billions of dollars. Zelenskyy has said that he would not sign an agreement that borrows his country for generations.
First meeting at the White House
Trump and Zelenskyy have had several matches in person in the past, but Friday is the first to be held in the White House. Earlier this month, they both spoke on the phone, after Trump's call with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
Since he assumed the position, Trump has increased his pressure campaign on Ukraine, stating that kyiv began the war with Russia and calling Zelenskyy a “dictator.”
He has also repeated the statement that the United States has spent 350,000 million dollars in the Ukraine War, a figure that far eclipses the amount recorded by the Department of Defense and the inter -institutional supervision group that tracks US assignments to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Trump is carrying out direct negotiations with Russia without the participation of kyiv or his European allies, defending them during his press conference on Thursday as “common sense.”
He described the conversations as “very advanced”, but warned that there is only a small time window to achieve an agreement that ends the war. He expressed his confidence that Putin “will fulfill his word” and will not launch more aggressions against Ukraine if a peace agreement between Moscow and kyiv is reached.
(Patsy Widakuswara, Jeff Seldin, Mykhailo Komadovsky, Myroslava Gongadze and Kim Lewis contributed to this report)