Zelensky Appeals To Trump After Aid Halt

Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine, stated on Tuesday that he wanted to “make things right” with Donald Trump and work under the “strong leadership” of the US president.

Zelensky said his public spat with Trump last week was “regrettable” and promised to sign a significant minerals deal with Washington. This was his first public comments since Trump stopped US military aid to Ukraine.

In order to end the three-year conflict, he also called for a “truce” in the sea and sky.

Since Zelensky and Trump clashed in the Oval Office last week, the Kyiv-Washington wartime alliance has suffered a dramatic collapse, with crucial military assistance being suspended by Ukraine’s top ally.

Zelensky wrote on X: “My team and I are prepared to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to bring about peace.”

The Ukrainian leader continued, “Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go as planned.” The time has come to “make things right.”

Trump’s shocking decision on Monday to stop aid to Ukraine stoked concerns in Kyiv and many other European cities that the United States was moving away from its allies and toward Russia.

Moscow praised Trump’s decision, calling it a “solution that could really bring the Kyiv regime to a peaceful process,” according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

The European Union has been trying to bolster Kyiv’s support by excluding Ukraine from US-Russian discussions on a potential truce.

Trump and Zinelnsky clashed last week, and Trump made the threat even more pressing by saying his Ukrainian counterpart “won’t be around for very long” without a ceasefire agreement.

Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, presented on Tuesday a plan to mobilize 800 billion euros ($840 billion) for Europe’s defense.

She claimed that the funding would “massively increase” Ukraine’s support and give it “immediate military equipment.”

An urgent summit of the EU’s members on Thursday is scheduled to cement their commitment to Ukraine.

Read more: Trump Says Zelensky “Overplayed His Hand” in White House Row.

Stab in the back

What they thought was a betrayal by Trump shocked ordinary Ukrainians who spoke to AFP.

A 33-year-old Kyiv financial assistant, Sofia, who only provided her first name, told AFP, “It’s like a stab in the back.”

Sergiy Sternenko, an army volunteer, posted a message on Telegram asking for Trump to “wants Ukraine’s surrender, the deaths of our people, the surrender of our territories.”

Poland’s government pointed out that America made the decision without consulting NATO allies, and that its weapons and aid logistics hub, which hosts Ukraine, already has evidence of its effects.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk remarked, “Reports coming in from the border, as well as from our hub confirm the announcements made by the American side.”

“Entire trains” carrying US supplies for Ukraine are being stopped and prevented from reaching their destination, according to French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, who spoke to lawmakers in Paris.

He stated that France would use “all available means” to help the country close the aid gap left by the US decision.

According to The New York Times, the US pause affects the shipment of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine.

summit of the EU

Zelensky visited Washington last week to sign a multi-billion-dollar mineral deal, but it ended up being canceled following a confrontation with Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

Zelensky stated on Tuesday that Kyiv was prepared to “anytime and in any convenient format” to sign a deal granting the US preferential access to Ukraine’s natural resources and minerals.

For the end of the war, Ukraine is requesting stringent security guarantees.

Kyiv is turning to other, Western-backed measures as the United States opposes its bid to join NATO.

Keir Starmer, the prime minister of the UK, contacted Zelensky over the phone on Tuesday, stating that “no one wanted peace more than Ukraine.”

Britain and France are looking into a proposal for a one-month Ukraine-Russian truce that might be backed up by troops on the ground following weekend crisis talks in London.

In a Monday interview with Fox News, Vance made fun of the idea of sending soldiers to Ukraine from “some random country that has not fought a war in 30 or 40 years.” Politicians in France and Britain reacted incredulously to that.

Source: Channels TV