Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine ready to work under Donald Trump's 'strong leadership'

Extract from ABC News

By Riley Stuart in London

• Topic:Unrest, Conflict and War

3 hours ago

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he wants more constructive cooperation with the US. (AP: Evgeniy Maloletka)

In short:

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has moved to diffuse tensions between his country and the US, after Donald Trump paused all aid to Ukraine on Monday.

The Ukrainian president posted on social media that he and his team was ready to work under Mr Trump and his "strong leadership".

What's next?

The European Commission has outlined a plan worth hundreds of billions of Euros to help its members with rearmament, in case the US pulls out of the region altogether.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has offered an olive branch to his US counterpart Donald Trump, describing their fiery Oval Office meeting last week as "regrettable".

In an awkward exchange last Friday, Mr Zelenskyy, Mr Trump and US Vice-President JD Vance criticised each other in front of dozens of reporters, and senior government officials, over plans to strike a peace deal with Russia.

By Tuesday, Mr Trump announced he was pausing all aid to Ukraine, which has been fighting a Russian invasion for more than three years.

In a statement posted to social media on Tuesday, local time, Mr Zelenskyy said it was "time to make things right" and that he was ready to work under Mr Trump's "strong leadership".

"Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go the way it was supposed to be," the post read.

The Ukrainian president also said his country was:

• Ready to sign a minerals deal proposed by the Trump administration
• Valued what "America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence"
• And, keen to "work fast" to end the war.

In the post on the social media platform X, Mr Zelenskyy 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," the post read.

"Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump's strong leadership to get a peace that lasts."

The US has been a major military and aid donor to Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

However, relations have deteriorated after Mr Trump returned to the White House earlier this year.

Last month, the US president described Mr Zelenskyy as a "dictator" in a social media post, and has, on several occasions, repeated the Kremlin lie that Ukraine was responsible for starting the war.

During his campaign, Mr Trump claimed he could end the conflict in "one day" and since taking office, he has rekindled diplomatic relations with Moscow.

He's spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone, and the pair have discussed holding several in-person meetings.

The US president's decision to up-end decades of US foreign policy and move his country closer to the Kremlin has been condemned by Ukraine, and America's NATO allies.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy clashes with Donald Trump and JD Vance during Oval Office talks.

However, they've been received warmly in Moscow.

Earlier this week, spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the US president's determination to change foreign policy "largely coincides" with Russia's vision and that the about-face was previously "impossible to imagine."

That's dismayed many European leaders, who've also been major backers of Ukraine and pointed out Russia is the aggressor in the conflict, which is estimated to have killed hundreds of thousands of people on both sides.

On Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a proposal to borrow €150 billion ($254 billion) to help EU nations boost military capacity.

It's part of a larger blueprint, worth up to €800 billion, to help rearmament efforts amid fears the US would continue to pull out of the region.

"We are living in the most momentous and dangerous of times," Ms von der Leyen said.

"We are in an era of rearmament. And Europe is ready to massively boost its defence spending."

Several nations, including the UK, France and Australia, have already flagged the possibility they could send troops to Ukraine if a peace deal is struck, in a bid to deter future Russian invasions.