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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that "strong Ukraine-U.S. relations benefit the entire world," an apparent attempt to calm tensions with Washington after he and U.S. President Donald Trump traded barbs this week over efforts to end Russia's three-year war on Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said in Kyiv he had a "productive meeting" with Trump envoy Keith Kellogg on the "battlefield situation, how to return our prisoners of war and effective security guarantees" for Ukraine if the war is ended.
Earlier in the week, Zelenskyy had complained that Ukraine was excluded from high-level talks in Saudi Arabia between the top U.S. and Russian diplomats as they discussed setting up negotiations about how to end the war and contended that Trump was living in a Russian-influenced "disinformation space."
Meanwhile, Trump called Zelenskyy a "dictator without elections" and claimed falsely that Ukraine started the war three years ago next week, even though Russian President Vladimir Putin initiated it.
Kellogg said he went to Kyiv to listen to Zelenskyy's views and would report back to Trump.
The Trump administration has proposed that part of the settlement of war would involve the U.S. investing in Ukrainian mining operations. The U.S. would gain access to rare earth minerals it needs for the manufacture of American technology products and recoup some of the money for the tens of billions of dollars' worth of munitions it has sent to Ukraine to fight Russian forces while also boosting the war-ravaged Ukrainian economy.
Zelenskyy so far has balked at the proposition for what he sees as lack of adequate security for Ukraine if the war is ended.
In Washington, Mike Waltz, Trump's national security adviser, told reporters, "We're going to continue to have discussions about where that deal is going again. We have an obligation to the taxpayer. I think this is an opportunity. The president thinks this is an opportunity for Ukraine.
"Going forward, there can be, in my view, nothing better for Ukraine's future and for their security than to have the United States invested in their prosperity long term," Waltz said. "And then a key piece of this has also been security guarantees. Look, the reality that we're talking about here is, is it in Ukraine's interest? Is it in Europe's interest? It certainly isn't in Russia's interest or in the American people's interest, for this war to grind on forever and ever and ever.
"Understand, this war needs to come to an end, this kind of open-ended mantra [supporting Ukraine military operations] that we had under [President Joe Biden's] administration, that's over, and I think a lot of people are having a hard time accepting that," he said.
Ukraine fears that Trump is moving to settle the war on terms more favorable to Moscow. Russia currently controls about a fifth of Ukraine's internationally recognized territory.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance told a gathering of conservative activists outside Washington on Thursday that Trump "wants the killing to stop" in Ukraine and that "peace is in the interest of the American people."
After the U.S.-Russian talks in Riyadh, "we're on the cusp of peace," he said, not mentioning Ukraine's role in settling the conflict. U.S. officials have said Kyiv and Moscow will both be involved in the settlement and will have to make concessions to achieve peace.
European leaders have responded to Trump's recent remarks about Ukraine by pledging to step up spending on defense, and some are considering a U.S.-backed European peacekeeping force for the country if the fighting ends. The Kremlin says the plan is a major cause for concern, but Zelenskyy and NATO have welcomed it.
"It is vital that ... Russia will never again try to take one more square kilometer of Ukrainian land," NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said, adding that a peace pact would have to entail robust security guarantees for Ukraine.
"While there is much that still needs to be decided, there is no question that Europe has a vital role to play in securing peace in Ukraine," he told reporters in Bratislava, Slovakia.
In a string of comments on his Truth Social platform this week, Trump accused Zelenskyy of refusing to hold elections in Ukraine, which had been scheduled for April 2024 but were delayed after Russia invaded in 2022.
Trump disparaged Zelenskyy as "a modestly successful comedian" and said, "The only thing he was good at was playing Biden 'like a fiddle'" for more U.S. military assistance.
"I love Ukraine," Trump said, "but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died - And so it continues."
Earlier, Trump had scoffed at Zelenskyy's complaint about not being invited to the Tuesday talks in Riyadh, which were headed by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
"Today I heard, 'Well, we weren't invited.' Well, you've been there for three years," Trump said of Ukraine's leaders.
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