Washington – After Friday’s public clash between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, US officials say that the path to a peace agreement to end the war in Ukraine is deeply uncertain, and depending completely the next steps of the Ukrainian leader.
Since the explosion, Trump administration officials have also discussed whether to stop the military aid of the United States to Ukraine, according to two administration officials, although it is not clear if the president would take that step or when he would take that step or when.
A White House spokesman declined to comment.
Zelenskyy was in the White House on Friday to sign an agreement with Trump that would reduce the United States on the money from rare earth extraction and other critical minerals in Ukraine after the war ends with Russia. Trump has said that the economic agreement with the United States would serve as a guarantee of security for Ukraine against a future Russian invasion as the one that the war began in February 2022. But the agreement was never signed and remains in limbo.
Trump’s assistants asked Zelenskyy to leave the White House after an Oval office meeting with almost an hour of comments and questions from journalists who became a dispute, which left the president angry and publicly questioned if the Ukrainian leader wants to negotiate an end of the war.
The public statements of Zelenskyy since he left the White House on Friday, including a publication on social networks that thanks Trump for receiving him and the Americans for supporting Ukraine, have done little to move the president since then, and the senior administration officials believe that peace conversations with Ukraine are waiting, according to multiple officials of the administration.
One of the administration officials said: “The ball is in the court of President Zelenskyy.”
“The president believes that Zelenskyy has to return to the table and he has to be the one who comes and does it well,” said the official.
Another administration official said that Zelenskyy has so far not publicly demonstrated any regret so the White House considers an irrespectful approach to an oval office meeting, and added that the official “is not sure” where a peace process goes from here.
Multiple administration officials backed critics of how Trump handled the moment, some of whom have suggested that tense time was planned in the oval office between Trump and Zelenskyy. Senator Jack Reed, Dr.i., the main democrat of the Senate Armed Services Committee, described the scene as “a political ambush” in a statement on Friday.
“It was not planned at all. It was exactly the opposite of how most people expected the exchange to be, ”said a source familiar with the meeting. An administration official added: “There was no configuration.”
Finishing the war in Ukraine was one of Trump’s characteristic campaign promises, and said during the 2024 race that he would do so within 24 hours after the position. Friday’s developments left the president farther from achieving that goal, just over two weeks after Trump said he had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin and negotiations to end the war in Ukraine would begin “immediately.” Trump then called Zelenskyy to inform him of his conversation with Putin.
What followed were two weeks of public and private trip among American and Ukrainian officials who, since the opinion of the Trump administration, was thorough, according to two administration officials.
“It has been a couple of challenging weeks,” said one of the officials.
As said three Trump administration officials, Zelenskyy approached meetings with the Trump administration officials, including vice president JD Vance, from a point of view of want United sank, Trump referred to the public to which he referred to the United States for the United States. dictator.
But negotiations on a mineral agreement continued. In the days prior to the Zelenskyy meeting with Trump, Ukrainian officials pressed for language adjustments in the agreement, two administration officials said.
When Zelenskyy, during his comments in the Oval office, raised the idea of ”real” security guarantees of the USA. Once the economic agreement on Ukrainian minerals, reiterating their public position for a long time, their comments were broken in some administration officials.
“It has been very clear to Zelenskyy that there would be no security guarantees in this agreement,” said one of the officials.
Administration officials said they are not sure precisely what Zelenskyy could do to convince Trump to re -involve negotiations with him, apart from having, from his perspective, a change of complete attitude towards the president. They said Trump is not convinced that Zelenskyy wants to negotiate the end of the war at this time.
“He has not account for the reality that there was a paradigm shift with the elections on November 6,” said an administration official about Zelenskyy.
When asked if it is still possible for the United States to work with Zelenskyy to reach a peace agreement, another administration official said: “I still think so.”
Zelenskyy has been in the United Kingdom this weekend for meetings with the main European leaders trying to determine a path to follow. He is ready to attend a summit in London on Sunday to discuss war with more than 15 European leaders.
