A day after the televised spat with Donald Trump, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the American president and the people for their help and said he was ready to sign the deal for Kyiv’s rare minerals as “the first step toward security guarantees“.
In a long thread of posts on X, Zelenskyy acknowledged, “It will be difficult without the US support. But we can’t lose our will, our freedom, or our people… If we cannot be accepted to Nato, we need some clear structure of security guarantees from our allies in the US.”
Zelenskyy, Trump and US vice-president J D Vance sparred in front of TV cameras Friday, with Vance saying the Ukrainian president had not thanked the US president and Trump saying, “…if we’re out, you’ll fight it out and I don’t think it’s going to be pretty”.
Asked on Fox News if he would apologise to Trump, Zelenskyy refused, and said, “despite the tough dialogue, we remain strategic partners. But we need to be…direct with each other to truly understand our shared goals.”
Zelenskyy said he is ready to sign the minerals agreement in exchange for security – the purpose of his visit to the White House which led to the showdown. The Ukrainian president left in a huff and arrived in London Saturday, ahead of a summit on Sunday organised by British PM Keir Starmer with other European leaders.
“We are ready to sign the minerals agreement, and it will be the first step toward security guarantees. But it’s not enough, and we need more than just that. A ceasefire without security guarantees is dangerous for Ukraine. We’ve been fighting for three years, and Ukrainian people need to know that America is on our side,” he said.
Trump, headed to Florida for the weekend, told media that Zelenskyy was “looking to go on and fight, fight, fight”. Reacting to the spat, the Russian foreign ministry called Zelenskyy’s visit to the US a “complete political and diplomatic failure” for Kyiv.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said Zelenskyy had received “a proper slap down in the Oval Office”. Calling Russia the “enemy”, Zelensky said, “It’s understandable the US might look for dialogue with (Russian president) Putin. But the US has always spoken about ‘peace through strength.’ Together we can take strong steps against Putin.”