Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy repeats demands for security guarantees to end Russia’s invasion of his country just hours after Oval Office spat.
ADVERTISEMENTShortly after a shocking shouting match erupted in the Oval Office as US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy convened, the Ukrainian leader has repeated demands for security guarantees in order to pursue a peace deal with Russia.
Trump shouted at Zelenskyy just a few hours earlier as he accused him of being ungrateful to the United States. The US president also commented about the chaotic meeting which ended abruptly after White House officials reportedly asked Zelenskyy to leave where he said that the Ukrainian leader was never serious about making peace or ending the war.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine just over three-years ago. Much of the West, including the US, jumped to Ukraine's defence, committing to helping the eastern European country fight Moscow's aggression through financial and military aid.
Trump who returned to the White House in January has sought to reshape US foreign policy dramatically, including Washington's stance on Ukraine. Trump has been critical of the war in Ukraine for some time, and threatened to end support for Kyiv even before taking office.
Tensions spiked last week after Trump and Zelenskyy exchanged barbs publicly, with Zelenskyy accusing Trump of living in a Russian-made "disinformation space", and Trump calling the Ukrainian president a dictator.
The meeting was seen by many as an opportunity to calm tensions and bring some stability to an increasingly concerning global security situation, but it failed to achieve that.
Zelenskyy described the contentious spat with Trump as "not good for both sides." He made the remarks during an exclusive interview to Fox News just hours after the heated incident.
"I'm very thankful to Americans for all your support. You did a lot. I'm thankful to President Trump and to Congress bipartisan support. And I was always very thankful from all our people. You helped us a lot from the very beginning during three years of full-scale innovation. You helped us to survive," said Zelenskyy on Bret Baier's 'Special Report' segment.
Zelenskyy seemingly dismissed indications that Kyiv does not want to secure a peace deal, explaining what Ukrainians have had to endure for the last few years.
"Nobody wants to finish (the war) more than we because we in Ukraine, we are in this war. We are in this battle, a battle for full freedom, for our lives."
Zelenskyy also urged Trump to reconsider his stance, and be on the right side, standing next to Ukrainians as they fight for western values, unity and security.
"I'm just telling that I think that we have to be on the same side. And I hope that the president on our side together with us. And that is very important to stop Putin. And I heard from President Trump a lot of times that he will stop the war, and I hope he will," added Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy insists that ending the suffering of Ukrainians must come with guarantees to prevent this from happening again.
“You know, just a ceasefire without security guarantees, this so sensitive for our people. I'm speaking like a president of a people who are in this struggle three years," said Zelenskyy.
"They just want to hear that America (is) on our side and that America will stay with us, not with Russians. With us. That's it. But I'm sure that it will be."
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Zelenskyy also noted that the minerals deal, which was on Friday's agenda but was suspended after the meeting went sour, will be the first step towards obtaining the security guarantees Kyiv deems necessary.
"The deal on minerals is the first step to security guarantees. It's meant for the peace, closer to peace. That's why I'm here and I have, we have a tough situation. To understand it is to be in Ukraine."
Trump says he's confident and trusts when Russia's President Vladimir Putin tells him that he wants to end the fighting.
Zelenskyy says the US president must understand that Ukraine has reason to doubt the Kremlin's reliability, as he noted in the meeting that it had previously violated a 2019 peace deal signed between himself, Germany's then Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.
ADVERTISEMENTHe stressed that Ukraine cannot change its attitude toward Russia on a dime, and the guarantees are to ensure that a new peace deal is not a repeat of 2019.