March 27, 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump slammed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday for suggesting that the end of the war between Russia and Ukraine is still likely “very, very far away."
Trump took issue with Zelenskyy's suggestion that it would take time to reach an agreement between Russia and Ukraine to end the war, while trying to offer a positive take on the U.S.-Ukraine relationship in the aftermath of a White House meeting between the two leaders.
“It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelenskyy, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the U.S. — Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. “What are they thinking?”
The Ukrainian leader was in London to attend U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s effort to rally his European counterparts around continuing support for Ukraine from the continent. Asked by a reporter to comment on the outlines of a new European initiative to end Russia's war, Zelenskyy said: “We are talking about the first steps today, and therefore, until they are on paper, I would not like to talk about them in great detail."
“An agreement to end the war is still very, very far away, and no one has started all these steps yet. The peace that we foresee in the future must be just, honest, and most importantly, sustainable,” he added.
Earlier Monday, Trump's national security adviser said Zelenskyy’s posture during Friday’s Oval Office talks “put up in the air” whether he’s someone the U.S. administration will be able to deal with going forward.
“Is he ready, personally, politically, to move his country towards an end to the fighting?” Mike Waltz said on Fox News' "America’s Newsroom" on Monday. “And can he and will he make the compromises necessary?”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally who has been a vociferous supporter of Ukraine, said soon after the Oval Office meeting that Zelenskyy “either needs to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with, or he needs to change.”
