President Donald Trump Tuesday hinted that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with whom the last meeting at the White House turned into a global spectacle is welcome to the White House again, as Ukraine agreed to a 30-day ceasefire deal with Russia. Following this, the US announced that it would lift restrictions on the military and intelligence aid that it paused as the US-Ukraine relationship went south. Trump said he would speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin this week.
“It takes two to tango. Hopefully, he (Putin) will also agree to the ceasefire. And I really think that would be 75 per cent of the way. The rest is getting it documented and negotiating,” Trump said.
In the statement, the United States and Ukraine acknowledged that the terms of any ceasefire would be subject to Russia’s approval.
“Ukraine expressed readiness to accept the U.S. proposal to enact an immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire” if Russia did the same, the statement said. It added: “The United States will communicate to Russia that Russian reciprocity is the key to achieving peace.”
Donald Trump, Zelenskyy fight at White House, JD Vance leads
The February 28 meeting between Trump, Zelenskyy and vice president JD Vance turned hostile and Zelenskyy left the White House without signing the minerals deal. JD Vance accused Zelenskyy of not being thankful to the US President for his mediation while Zelenskky questioned Vance’s diplomacy and accused him of siding with Russia.
European leaders extended support to Zelenskyy in the face of ‘White House bullying’ while Zelenskyy dialled down and thanked the United States and said that he was ready to come to the negotiating table again to reach a peace deal under Trump’s leadership.
“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. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive,” Zelenskyy said.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff claimed that Zelenskyy sent an apology letter to Trump after the showdown. “I think that it was an important step, and there’s been a lot of discussion between our teams and the Ukrainians and the Europeans who are relevant to this discussion as well,” Witkoff said.
