Zelenskyy thanks American people after White House meeting cut short
Read NV on Google
After a heated public argument with U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Feb. 28, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a statement in which he expressed gratitude to the United States and the American people.
“Thank you, America, thank you for the support, thank you for this visit,” Zelenskyy said in a Twitter post.
“Thank you to the President, Congress, and the American people. Ukraine needs a just and lasting peace, and we are working toward that.”
The Ukrainian delegation left the White House prematurely, and Kyiv and Washington did not sign a much-anticipated minerals deal after a contentious dispute before reporters in the Oval Office.
Zelenskyy arrived in Washington earlier on Feb. 28 to attend the signing ceremony for a bilateral framework agreement on resource extraction in Ukraine. The first draft of the minerals deal included borderline exploitative terms: the Trump administration wanted Ukraine to immediately divert 50% of its revenue from resource extraction to a $500 billion fund, as “compensation” for the military aid the United States provided in the past.
Having rejected to sign the deal immediately, Zelenskyy “disappointed” the U.S. president, according to National Security Adviser Mike Waltz. In a matter of days, Trump blamed Ukraine for starting the war and called Zelenskyy a “dictator.”
Hoping to stave off the cratering of relations with the United States, Ukrainian and U.S. officials then negotiated a version of the minerals agreement that satisfied both sides. The document now mandates that only revenue from future resource extraction ventures would contribute to a jointly owned Ukrainian-U.S. fund, to be used to invest further in extraction projects on Ukrainian soil.
Nevertheless, Washinton resisted including any tangible security guarantees to Ukraine in the deal — a key goal of Zelenskyy’s and his team.
The military war may be swinging in our favor, but the information war continues.
Just as an army needs soldiers, so does a free society need its journalists to ensure that people have access to honest, trustworthy voices to understand the world around them.
For the past five years, The New Voice of Ukraine has been working tirelessly to push back against Russian narratives and defend democracy. But we cannot do it alone.
Please consider supporting us on Patreon for just $5 a month – your donation does directly to supporting journalists and ensuring that this front of the infowar says solid and defended.
Thank you.
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News
