Fox News Interview with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy After Meeting with US President Trump at the White House

After an aborted meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave an interview to Fox News in which he spoke about US aid, the dispute with Trump in the Oval Office, and the unsigned minerals deal.

President Zelenskyy began his interview by thanking the bipartisan support of Congress for their assistance to Ukraine. 

‘We have always been very grateful from all people. You helped us survive. In the end, we are strategic partners and even in such a tough dialogue, I believe that we must be very honest and very direct to understand each other, because it is really very necessary for us,’ Zelenskyy said.

He added that he treats US President Donald Trump with ‘all respect’ and that he wants to end the Russia-Ukraine war. However, Zelenskyy stressed that ‘no one wants to end the war more than we do, because we are in Ukraine, we are in this war, we are in this battle.’

During a meeting at the White House, US President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a dispute. American officials accused the Ukrainian of being inappropriately dressed and allegedly ungrateful for the assistance provided by the United States. The controversy was also sparked by the famous minerals deal.

During the interview, Zelenskyy called it a ‘difficult situation’ and said he did not know whether the confrontation was planned.

‘This is not about anger. How can I put it, here you are in the US, and you are told that Ukraine is destroyed, they have no military, their president is a dictator, so what reaction can there be? The reaction is: where are our friendly relations? The reaction is that I don't want to lose our good ally,’ Zelenskyy said.

One of the reasons for Zelenskyy's visit to the United States was to sign a framework agreement between Ukraine and the United States. However, this did not happen, as the two presidents had a dispute during a meeting at the White House. Trump said that either Kyiv would sign an agreement with Washington on rare earth minerals, or ‘you will fight alone’. After that, Zelenskyy left the White House early. The US president published a post on Truth Social saying that the Ukrainian president could return when he was ‘ready for peace’.

In an interview, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine was ready to sign the agreement and that ‘this would be the first step towards security guarantees,’ but that this was not enough, so he wanted to share these thoughts with Trump during the meeting. Zelenskyy stressed that ‘we must sign it’. He added that Ukraine needs a just and lasting peace and security guarantees.

Earlier, the Ukrainian and American sides said that the document had already been agreed. ‘This agreement is a framework agreement. It provides for the creation of a joint fund to be managed by Ukraine and the United States. Ukraine will contribute 50 % of the revenues from natural resource extraction, which will be reinvested in the Ukrainian economy.

The Ukrainian president expressed his belief that relations with Trump after the dispute in the White House ‘can be saved’ because it is ‘higher than the relationship between two presidents, it is the relationship between two nations.’ Zelenskyy added that he would like Trump to be on Ukraine's side, not in the middle.

‘I will explain to you: Russia brought the war to our country. Russia brought this war. They brought the war to our territory, to our families and to our homes,’ Zelenskyy added.

After the meeting, US Senator Lindsey Graham, a member of the Republican Party, said that President Zelenskyy ‘behaved terribly’ during his conversation with Trump and called on Zelenskyy to ‘either resign, let someone else do business with us, or change his position’.

Zelenskyy, in turn, told Graham that ‘only Ukrainians’ would vote for the president.

‘If the United States supports joining NATO, then yes, I have done everything I had to do, and then okay, I will be happy (to resign - ed.),’ Zelenskyy said.

Earlier, during a meeting with journalists, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was ready to leave office if it meant peace for Ukraine.

President Zelensky said that during the three years of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine received $100 billion from the United States. More than half of this money has come to Ukraine in the form of weapons and another half as financial aid.

‘As of today, we have $183 billion from the United States on paper in documents. But in reality, $67 billion of this came in the form of weapons and another $31.5 billion was direct financial support to the budget,’ Zelenskyy said.

He added that all the confirmations are in electronic form and can be checked