WASHINGTON – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was asked to leave the White House after a chaotic Oval Office confrontation with US President Donald Trump on Friday, and the signing of a minerals deal between the two sides was called off.
Following the tense shouting match in the Oval Office earlier in the day, Trump said that he wants an "immediate" ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, and that he believes his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is ready for a peace deal.
Trump warned Zelensky to make peace or lose American support.
"I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations. I don't want advantage, I want PEACE. He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace," Trump posted a statement on the social platform Truth Social.
ALSO READ: Trump says Ukraine can 'forget about' joining NATO
In a Fox News interview on Friday night, Zelensky repeatedly said he would not apologize to Trump for the unexpected blowup between the two sides.
"I think that we have to be very open and very honest, and I'm not sure that we did something bad," he said.
But he noted that this kind of spat "is not good for both sides".
He insisted that Ukraine won't enter peace talks with Russia until it has security guarantees against another offensive.
After his spat with US Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office, who demanded the Ukrainian leader be thankful for Trump's effort to get his country out of its three-year conflict with Russia, Zelensky wrote on the social platform X: "Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you (President Trump), Congress, and the American people. Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that."
What should have been a normal press pool spray before the high-stakes Trump-Zelensky bilateral meeting transpired into a fireworks-filled blowup aired on TV that no one would expect, all starting with an interjection by Vance, who was present in the room, demanding that the Ukrainian leader be thankful for Trump's effort to get his country out of its three-year conflict with Russia.
"You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict," Vance told Zelensky during the unprecedented public confrontation, which later saw the three of them – Trump and Vance versus Zelensky – repeatedly race to talk over one another.
Rebuking Vance, Zelensky's remarks that the United States will "in the future" feel the problem brought to it by the Ukraine-Russia conflict was pushed back by Trump, who said Zelensky was "in no position to dictate what we are going to feel" given that he "allowed" himself "to be in a very bad position".
READ MORE: Ukraine authorizes govt members to sign minerals partnership deal with US
"You don't have cards right now. With us you start having cards," Trump said as Zelensky, whose voice was barely audible in the face of a shouting Trump, was heard saying he was not playing cards.
"You're gambling with the lives of millions of people. You're gambling with World War III. You're gambling with World War III. And what you're doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country," Trump piled on and continued.
‘No immediate in-person talks’
The US president also ruled out any chance of immediate in-person talks with the Ukrainian leader after their tense shouting match at the White House.
"Well, he says he wants it now. He wants to come back right now. But I can't do that," Trump told reporters on Friday evening as he was leaving the White House to spend the weekend in Florida.
ALSO READ: China calls on Security Council to promote peace talks on Ukraine
A press conference at the White House where Trump and Zelensky were scheduled earlier to sign the US-Ukraine minerals deal was canceled, following the stunning verbal clash.
Citing a White House official, media reported that Trump currently is not interested in revisiting or reviving the minerals deal.
