By Erin Banco, Max Hunder and Olena Harmash
WASHINGTON/KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pledged to repair relations with the U.S. on Tuesday after what he described as a “regrettable” Oval Office clash with U.S. President Donald Trump last week, while the fate of a much-debated minerals deal remained unclear.
Four sources told Reuters that the Trump administration and Ukraine plan to sign a deal giving the U.S. access to Ukrainian minerals in return for military aid. Later on Tuesday, however, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News, “There is no signing planned,” according to a post on X by a Fox reporter.
The White House, Ukraine’s presidential administration in Kyiv and the Ukrainian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the deal.
Early Tuesday Zelenskiy said he wanted to “make things right” and was ready “any time and in any convenient format” to sign a minerals deal, which he left on the table during a visit to Washington after the Oval Office argument with Trump.
His statement came a day after Trump halted military aid to Ukraine, his latest move to upend U.S. policy and adopt a more conciliatory stance toward Russia.
“None of us wants an endless war. Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible … Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians,” Zelenskiy said in his statement on X.
“My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.”
The statement made no mention of the pause in U.S. military supplies.
Zelenskiy’s statement was clearly aimed at stressing Kyiv’s gratitude following the explosive confrontation at the White House, at which Trump and Vice President JD Vance scolded Zelenskiy as insufficiently appreciative.
“We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence,” Zelenskiy wrote. “Our meeting in Washington … 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.”
Zelenskiy outlined a path towards a peace agreement, which he said could begin with a release of prisoners and a halt to air and sea attacks, if Russia did the same.
“Then we want to move very fast through all next stages and to work with the U.S. to agree a strong final deal.”
GEOPOLITICAL SHIFT
Earlier, Zelenskiy’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said Ukraine’s forces could hold their own on the battlefield against Russian troops, but that Kyiv would do everything possible to continue cooperating with the U.S.
“We will continue to work with the U.S. through all available channels in a calm manner,” Shmyhal said. “We only have one plan – to win and to survive.”
A Russian drone attack late on Tuesday killed one person and triggered power, water and heating cuts in Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa for the second day running, the regional governor said.
In Moscow, the Kremlin said cutting off U.S. military aid to Ukraine was the best possible step towards peace, although it was waiting to confirm Trump’s move.
U.S. Democrats have raised an outcry over Trump’s abrupt pivot towards Russia, the most dramatic geopolitical shift in generations for Washington, where governments under both parties since the 1940s have prioritized defending Europe from a hostile Moscow.
Trump is expected to further outline his plans for Ukraine and Russia in a major speech to Congress later on Tuesday.
So far, leaders of Trump’s Republican Party in Congress have made little or no pushback to the move. Many Republicans had earlier been vocal backers of Ukraine, which relied on U.S. and European military aid to fight bigger and better-armed Russia through three years of warfare that has killed and injured hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides.
Shmyhal said Kyiv was doing more to ramp up its own military production, especially drones. But air defences could be a particular problem if U.S. aid ends, especially the Patriot batteries that are Ukraine’s only defence against Russian ballistic missiles aimed at its cities.
The U.S. cut-off, while “pretty significant,” was less harmful to Kyiv than it would have been earlier, “because Ukraine is far less dependent on direct U.S. military assistance now,” said Michael Kofman, a senior fellow at Carnegie Endowment.
PRESSURE ON EUROPE
The pause puts more pressure on European allies who have publicly embraced Zelenskiy since the Oval Office blow-up. Britain and France, whose leaders both visited the White House last week, have offered troops to help guard a potential ceasefire.
On Tuesday, Germany’s conservatives and Social Democrats announced proposals to set up a 500 billion euro fund to help ramp up defence spending.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled proposals to mobilise up to 800 billion euros ($840 billion) for EU defence spending. The 27-nation bloc holds an emergency summit on Thursday.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said the president had spoken with both the U.S. and Ukrainian leaders and welcomed Zelenskiy’s will to re-engage with Trump.
But France’s Prime Minister Francois Bayrou was sharply critical of Trump’s move to pause military supplies.
“Suspending aid during a war to a country under attack means abandoning the country under attack and accepting or hoping that the aggressor will win,” he said during a parliamentary debate.
Ukrainians were stunned and many described Washington’s move as a betrayal. Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said it looked like Trump was “pushing us towards capitulation”.
“Yes, it is betrayal, let’s call it like it is,” said lawyer Olena Bilova, 47, in Kyiv. “But let’s hope that American civil society and the elites of the European Union will not leave us alone.”
(Reporting by Olena Harmash and Yuliia Dysa, Andrea Shalal, Gram Slattery; Additional reporting by Idrees Ali, Erin Banco, Steve Holland, Lidia Kelly, Mike Stone, Jasper Ward, Patricia Zengerle and Pavel Polityuk; Writing by James Oliphant, Peter Graff, Alex Richardson and Nia Williams; Editing by Ros Russell, Gareth Jones and David Gregorio)
