Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is still “ready to sign” a US-Ukraine minerals deal after leaving the White House without it being agreed.
Ukraine’s president told reporters that despite a fractious meeting with US President Donald Trump last week, he is still willing to have a “constructive dialogue” with the US, but said: “I just want the Ukrainian position to be heard.”
“We want our partners to remember who the aggressor is in this war,” he added.
When relations between the US and Ukraine first became strained over the Trump administration’s handing of peace talks with Russia, the minerals deal was intended as a stepping stone towards further security ties between the two countries.
But after Zelensky, Trump and US Vice-President JD Vance had a heated argument in front of the media in the Oval Office, the Ukrainian leader was told to leave without the deal being signed.
Zelensky’s remarks come as US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the BBC’s US partner CBS News it was “impossible to have an economic deal without a peace deal”.
Bessent said Zelensky had “thrown off the sequencing” of how the minerals deal and peace deal were supposed to play out – instead choosing to “relitigate” discussions in public when they should have taken place in private.
Speaking after a summit of European leaders in London on Sunday, Zelensky said the combative nature of his recent meeting in Washington did not benefit the US or Ukraine as partners, and only really benefited Russian President Vladimir Putin.
However, he said that he would return to the White House if invited.
But he refused to be drawn into talking about about conceding territory to Putin – an option Trump officials have touted as part of a peace deal – or expressing regret in how he had handled the meeting with Trump.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and currently controls around 20% of Ukrainian territory.
Zelensky was talking to the media in London following a summit during which world leaders agreed on a four-point plan to work with Ukraine to stop the war and defend it from future Russian aggression.
The UK, France and other countries will form a “coalition of the willing” would step up their efforts and seek to involve the US in their support for Ukraine, according to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
