Trump ramps up Zelenskyy attacks as US official says mineral deal close

A White House official claimed a deal on rare earth minerals was close, prompting President Donald Trump to continue his attacks on Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Trump’s statements on Friday continued a days-long squab against Zelenskyy that has wreaked havoc on both Ukraine and its traditional European allies. The Trump administration’s wider policy shift on the conflict, which included a bilateral meeting between US and Russian delegations earlier this week, is the subject of the criticism.

The US president once more blamed the Ukrainian leader for the destruction caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in an interview with Fox News radio.

When host Brian Kilmeade referred to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “Putin’s fault”, Trump replied: “I get tired of listening to it, I’ll tell you what”.

Zelenskyy was “negotiating with no cards,” according to Trump, and he criticized Kyiv for being sidelined by the US during recent negotiations with Russia.

“He’s been at meetings for three years, and he got nothing, so I don’t think he’s very important to be at meetings, to be honest”, said Trump, who also criticised the Ukrainian leader during a meeting with US governors later in the day.

Meanwhile, Mike Waltz, the White House’s national security adviser, stated on Friday that he believed Ukraine would soon agree to give Washington access to the country’s rare earth minerals in exchange for its continued support of the conflict.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has previously requested 50% ownership of the minerals, which the Trump administration has been pressing Kyiv to do with the deal. At the time, Zelenskyy rejected the offer.

“Look, here’s the bottom line, President Zelenskyy is going to sign that deal, and you will see that in the very short term”, Waltz said, speaking at a conference near Washington, DC, “and that is good for Ukraine”.

Escalating attacks

Zelenskyy’s unwavering criticism comes as a result of a wider renunciation of the former US president, who vowed to strengthen transatlantic ties and pledged unwavering support for Ukraine.

Trump’s administration has adopted a different tact, with Pete Hegseth, the head of US defense, telling NATO allies last week that Ukraine must accept that it will not reclaim the territory it has lost to Russia since 2014 and that it will not join the bloc.

The position appears to offer significant concessions to Russia before the start of peace negotiations, according to critics.

Both sides claimed they had agreed to begin a preliminary dialogue process after US and Russian delegations met in Saudi Arabia earlier this week.

Just hours later, Trump suggested Ukraine should “have never started” the war. The next day, Zellenskyy claimed the US president was operating in a “disinformation space.”

That then prompted a misinformation-laden social media rant from Trump, who called Zelenskyy a “dictator without elections” and claimed he had lost the support of the Ukrainian public.

Ukraine has been under martial law since Russia’s invasion, and has therefore not held elections. Zelenskyy’s support is frequently reported in opinion polls among Ukrainians.

In recent days, even Ukrainian opposition figures have defended him.

“We may have different opinions about Zelenskyy, but only Ukrainian citizens have the right to judge his support”, Yaroslav Zhelezniak, a lawmaker from the opposition party Holos, told The Associated Press.

“And to publicly criticise him too, because, in the end, he is our elected leader”.

“Bewildered and brave”

Trump’s statements have met a wave of condemnation from European leaders.

On Friday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, speaking at his last major campaign event in advance of elections on Sunday, pledged European unity with Ukraine.

He declared, “We won’t leave Ukraine alone and make decisions over their heads; we will make sure that it has the power to elect its own government.”

Next week’s White House visit was scheduled to include remarks from the UK and French leaders.

Speaking on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he would warn Trump that he cannot “be weak” with Putin.

Poland’s conservative President Andrzej Duda, who is also reportedly set to meet with Trump next week, has taken a different approach.

He said in a post on X that he had urged Zelenskyy to “main committed to the course of calm and constructive cooperation” with Trump during a call on Friday.

He continued, adding that there was “no other way to put an end to the bloodshed in Ukraine and achieve lasting peace without the support of the United States.”

US Special Envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg addressed his situation differently in a post on X on Friday, one day after meeting with Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

A joint press conference between the duo had been called off following that meeting, according to reports from the US.

Source: Aljazeera