Russia Zelensky expresses regret over scandal with Trump
Four days after the scandal in the White House, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi approaches US President Donald Trump and expresses his regret over the dispute. "It's unfortunate that it happened like this. It's time to put things right," he wrote in English on the X platform. He said he was prepared to work under Trump's "strong leadership" to end the war quickly. He was also prepared to sign the raw materials agreement at any time and in any form, he wrote a few hours before his speech in the US Congress. Last night, it became known that the USA was ending its military aid to Ukraine.
04.03.2025, 18:00
SDA
Although Zelensky continued to insist on security guarantees, he no longer presented these as a prerequisite for the first steps towards a peace treaty. Instead, he took up an initiative by French President Emmanuel Macron, who proposed a partial ceasefire in the air and at sea.
Unprecedented scandal in the White House
Zelensky's comments are a reaction to the White House's demand for an apology from the Ukrainian head of state following his verbal spat with Trump and US Vice President J.D. Vance in the Oval Office last Friday. Vance and Trump had accused Zelensky of ingratitude and a lack of respect. The meeting was broken off prematurely. Many European heads of government later expressed their solidarity with Zelensky.
Zelensky has so far refused to apologize for the incident. However, in the hours before his entry on X, it became known that the USA was temporarily suspending its arms deliveries to Kiev. According to media reports, the delivery stop imposed by Trump with immediate effect concerns weapons and ammunition worth more than one billion US dollars that are already being delivered or have been ordered.
Trump accuses Selensky of not wanting peace
Deliveries would only resume when Zelenskyi showed a clear will for peace, according to the White House. Trump was thus partly repeating accusations from the Kremlin, which claimed that Zelenskyi did not want peace but to continue the war. Moscow was correspondingly sympathetic to the delivery stop. If the flow of weapons and ammunition was actually interrupted, this would be a step towards forcing Kiev to make peace, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Selensky had previously emphasized several times that Ukraine was interested in peace.
The arms deliveries are considered essential if Ukraine wants to continue defending itself against the Russian invasion that has been going on for three years. The loss of these weapons threatens the country with setbacks on the front and the loss of further territories. Moscow has recently reaffirmed its ambitions for the complete conquest of the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions.
