Contrite Zelenskyy tells Trump he’s ready for peace, minerals deal after U.S. military aid ‘pause’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed regret over the heated Oval Office meeting with President Trump last week and said he was ready to strike a peace deal with Russia and a mineral deal with the U.S.

The meeting Friday turned contentious over U.S. wartime support for Ukraine. Mr. Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance accused Mr. Zelenskyy of not showing enough gratitude for billions of dollars in U.S. aid. The Ukrainian leader argued that Russian President Vladimir Putin could not be trusted to honor a negotiated deal to end the fighting.

Mr. Trump rattled Kyiv and Ukraine’s European allies Monday evening when he announced a “pause” in American military and financial aid to Kyiv. He accused Mr. Zelenskyy of not supporting his push for a peace deal with the Kremlin. Authorities in Poland confirmed that shipments of American arms and aid across the border to Ukraine had virtually stopped.

“None of us wants an endless war. Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer,” Mr. Zelenskyy wrote in a lengthy X post. “My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.”

“Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go the way it was supposed to be,” he wrote. “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.”

Mr. Trump’s precedent-breaking diplomacy has spurred a commitment to sharply higher defense spending by some of America’s top allies in NATO and the European Union.

EU leaders will hold an emergency meeting Thursday in Brussels to discuss the Ukraine crisis. On Tuesday, EU President Ursula von der Leyen said she was proposing an $841 billion package to boost European defense spending, deter Russia and reduce the continent’s dependence on Washington for security.

“Some of our fundamental assumptions are being undermined to their very core,” Ms. von der Leyen wrote to EU leaders, The Associated Press reported. “The pace of change is disconcerting and increasingly alarming.”

Decisions by the 27-nation bloc must be unanimous. EU officials were concerned that Hungary and perhaps other conservative states with good ties to Russia would balk at the proposal.

Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, has long lagged on defense spending. Incoming Chancellor Friedrich Merz said his coalition government would move to spend far more on the country’s armed services.

“In view of the increasing threat situation, it is clear to us that Europe — and with Europe, the Federal Republic of Germany — must now very quickly make very big efforts, very quickly, to strengthen the defense capability of our country and the European continent,” Mr. Merz told reporters in Berlin.

Different tone

After the diplomatic blow-up Friday, the lunch and joint press conference were canceled. Mr. Zelenskyy left the White House without signing the economic cooperation agreement that was supposed to be the centerpiece of his trip.

Combative at times in the Oval Office, Mr. Zelenskyy struck a markedly different tone in his Tuesday post.

“We are ready to work fast to end the war, and the first stages could be the release of prisoners and truce in the sky — ban on missiles, long-ranged drones, bombs on energy and other civilian infrastructure — and truce in the sea immediately, if Russia will do the same,” the Ukrainian leader wrote. “Then we want to move very fast through all next stages and to work with the U.S. to agree to a strong final deal.

“We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence,” he said. “And we remember the moment when things changed when President Trump provided Ukraine with Javelins. We are grateful for this.”

After the Oval Office ordeal, Mr. Trump said it was obvious that Mr. Zelenskyy wasn’t ready to make peace. Russian forces occupy about 20% of Ukraine’s territory in the south and east, and the Kremlin has said it will not give the land back in any peace deal.

In a Fox News interview Friday evening, Mr. Zelenskyy said he wouldn’t apologize over the spat and didn’t think he had done anything wrong.

Mr. Trump repeatedly said on the campaign trail that he could bring the 3-year-old conflict to a quick close. He said his motivation behind his diplomacy is to put an end to the deaths of young Russian and Ukrainian soldiers. He wants to strike a deal with Ukraine for American access to the country’s strategic mineral deposits as “payback” for the billions of dollars of aid the U.S. has sent to support Ukraine since 2022.

The White House argues that the economic deal is a way to get the security guarantees Kyiv seeks because Russia would be unlikely to invade again given a major U.S. economic presence.

“Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it at any time and in any convenient format,” Mr. Zelenskyy wrote in the X post. “We see this agreement as a step toward greater security and solid security guarantees, and I truly hope it will work effectively.”

Vice President J.D. Vance, who strongly seconded Mr. Trump in the ill-fated meeting with Mr. Zelenskyy, said he believed the minerals agreement could still be signed.

“Yeah, I certainly do,” he told reporters in Washington. “And I think the president is still committed to the mineral deal. I think we’ve heard some positive things — but not yet, of course, a signature — from our friends in Ukraine.”

Democrats and a few Republicans have criticized Mr. Trump’s handling of his meeting with Mr. Zelenskyy. They say the administration has ramped up the pressure on Ukraine while offering concessions and diplomatic outreach to Moscow. Mr. Trump and his aides have suggested that Ukraine must cede at least some territory to get a peace deal and drop all hopes of NATO membership after the war.

“If President Trump was truly concerned with securing a just and sustainable peace deal for Ukraine, he wouldn’t have conceded every piece of leverage the United States, our allies, and Ukraine held before even beginning negotiations,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “He wouldn’t be siding with an authoritarian responsible for war crimes. And he certainly wouldn’t be forcing Ukraine into surrender while claiming it’s a deal.”

Some senior foreign policy voices on Capitol Hill called for a diplomatic time-out.

“I hope this is a day when we can refrain from some of the rhetoric that it’s tempting to make,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger F. Wicker, Mississippi Republican, said at a committee hearing Tuesday. “I hope this is a day when senators and members of the House of Representatives can take a deep breath and hope that the excellent, hopeful signs that come from this statement by President Zelenskyy come to fruition and come to fruition quickly.

“It’s regrettable when [family fights] spill out into the front yard. But friends get over it. Friends decide to move on. And I think we’re seeing that process today.”

Mr. Trump was expected to address a joint session of Congress on Tuesday evening. He will discuss the Ukraine-Russia war, among other topics.

• David R. Sands contributed to this article, which is based in part on wire service reports.