By SAMYA KULLAB and HANNA ARHIROVA Associated Press
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that the Oval Office blowup with U.S. counterpart Donald Trump last week was “regrettable,” adding that he stands ready to work under Trump’s “strong leadership” to get a lasting peace.
Zelenskyy’s remarks — an apparent attempt to placate Trump — came in a social media post on X, hours after the White House announced a pause in military aid to Ukraine that is critical to fighting Russia’s invasion.
But later during his nightly address, Zelenskyy indicated that Ukraine didn’t receive direct notification from the U.S. that aid had been cut, and was seeking confirmation.
“I have instructed Ukraine’s Minister of Defense, the heads of our intelligence agencies, and our diplomats to contact their counterparts in the United States and obtain official information. People should not have to guess,” he said.
“Ukraine and America deserve a respectful dialogue and a clear position from one another. Especially when it comes to protecting lives during a full-scale war,” he added, saying that military aid had been cut once before in January for a brief period.
Zelenskyy also said Ukraine is ready to sign a lucrative deal on rare-earth minerals and security with Washington.
In an apparent reference to Trump’s criticism following the contentious White House meeting on Friday that Zelenskyy does not want a peace deal, the Ukrainian leader said: “None of us want an endless war.”
“Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts,” he said.
Asked by reporters in Moscow about Zelenskyy voicing readiness for the resumption of talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “It’s good, it’s positive.”
In his post, Zelenskyy said the Oval Office meeting “did not go the way it was supposed to be.”
“It is regrettable that it happened this way. It is time to make things right,” he added. “We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive.”
The pause of U.S. military aid catapulted Ukraine into alarm and apprehension. Zelenskyy’s statement came before Trump was expected to address the U.S. Congress later Tuesday.
“Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it in any time and in any convenient format,” Zelenskyy said. “We see this agreement as a step toward greater security and solid security guarantees, and I truly hope it will work effectively.”
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke by phone successively with Trump and Zelenskyy, Macron’s office said, and “welcomes” the Ukrainian’s “willingness to re-engage in dialogue with the U.S.” It released no details about the discussion with Trump.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer also spoke to the Ukrainian leader and “welcomed President Zelenskyy’s steadfast commitment to securing peace.”
Zelenskyy’s post came as officials in Kyiv said they were grateful for vital U.S. help in the war and want to keep working with Washington. Ukraine’s prime minister, though, said the country still wants security guarantees to be part of any peace deal and won’t recognize Russian occupation of any Ukrainian land. Those are potential stumbling blocks for Washington and Moscow, respectively.
Ukraine and its allies are concerned Trump is pushing for a quick ceasefire that will favor Russia, which Kyiv says cannot be trusted to honor truces.
A White House official said the U.S. was “pausing and reviewing” its aid to “ensure that it is contributing to a solution.” The order will remain in effect until Trump determines that Ukraine has demonstrated a commitment to peace negotiations, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the assistance.
The pause in U.S. aid isn’t expected to have an immediate impact on the battlefield. Ukrainian forces have slowed Russian advances along the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, especially in the fiercely contested Donetsk region in the east. The Russian onslaught has been costly in troops and armor but hasn’t brought a strategically significant breakthrough for the Kremlin.
Ukraine needs help to fight Russia
Ukraine, which depends heavily on foreign help to hold back Russia’s full-scale invasion that began on Feb. 24, 2022, has feared that aid could be stopped since Trump took office.
U.S.-made Patriot air defense missile systems, for example, are pivotal to protecting Ukraine. Just as vital is U.S. intelligence assistance, which has allowed Ukraine to track Russian troop movements and select targets.
“I feel betrayed, but this feeling is not really deep for some reason. I was expecting something like that from Trump’s side,” said a Ukrainian soldier fighting in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine launched a daring incursion in August 2024 to improve its hand in negotiations. The soldier spoke by phone to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
On the front line, where Ukraine is struggling to fend off the larger and better-equipped Russian army, another soldier said the U.S. decision would allow further battlefield gains for Moscow.
“War is very pragmatic,” he told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity in compliance with military regulations. “If we have weapons, enough ammunition, infantry, armored vehicles and aviation — great. If not, then we’re done,” he said.
He recalled a seven-month delay in U.S. aid that ended in April 2024 but opened a door for Russia’s capture of the strategic city of Avdiivka.
Olena Fedorova, 46, of the southern port city of Odesa, said she hoped Trump’s decision would be temporary because “we really need help.”
U.S. support is vital because Europe cannot fully provide what Ukraine needs in air defense systems, leading to increased civilian casualties, said lawmaker Yehor Chernov.
The suspension of U.S. military aid is already being felt at a hub in eastern Poland that has been used to ferry Western weapons into neighboring Ukraine, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.
The U.S.-Ukraine relationship has taken a downturn since Trump took office and his team launched bilateral talks with Russia.
Trump had vowed during his campaign to settle the war in 24 hours, but later changed that time frame and voiced hope that peace could be negotiated in six months.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said U.S. help is “vital” and has saved “perhaps tens of thousands” of civilian and military lives. But he emphasized that any peace agreement must be “on Ukraine’s terms, as the victim country.”
Ukraine wants “concrete security guarantees” from Washington, European countries and Group of Seven leading industrialized nations, he said. Giving up territory to Russia, which occupies nearly 20% of Ukraine, “is not possible” under the U.N. Charter, he said.
European allies stress support for Kyiv
Noting that the U.S. has been “the chief supplier” of aid to Ukraine, Peskov said that if Washington suspends these supplies, “it will make the best contribution to peace.”
Poland’s Foreign Ministry said the U.S. had not consulted with or informed NATO countries before announcing the pause.
Russia will likely try to use the halt in supplies to extend its territorial gains and strengthen its position in prospective peace talks.
Andrei Kartapolov, a retired general who heads a defense committee in parliament, told Russia’s state RIA news agency that Ukraine would exhaust its current ammunition reserves within months.
“We need to keep up the pressure and continue to target their bases and depots with long-range precision weapons to destroy the stockpiles,” he said.
Ukraine’s European allies, meanwhile, reaffirmed their commitment to Kyiv.
The chief of the European Union’s executive proposed an 800-billion-euro ($841 billion) plan to bolster defenses of EU nations and provide Ukraine with military muscle.
The U.K. government, which has been leading European efforts to keep Trump from pushing to end the war on terms that could favor Moscow, said it remains “absolutely committed to securing a lasting peace in Ukraine.”
Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director-general of the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based defense think tank, said Washington’s move could encourage Russia to seek more Ukrainian concessions, including demilitarization and neutrality.
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Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kyiv, Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Poland, and Aamer Madhani, Zeke Miller and Lisa Mascaro in Washington, contributed to this report.