Trump praises Zelensky before White House negotiation

Ahead of their White House meeting, US President Donald Trump has expressed his "lot of respect" for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

When the BBC asked him if he would say sorry for labelling him a "dictator" recently, he stated he was shocked by what he had said. Zelensky was also described as "very brave" by him.
Trump was addressing following discussions about resolving the conflict between Russia and Ukraine with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

He said that attempts to bring about peace were "moving along pretty rapidly" and that he expected to have a "very good meeting" with Zelensky on Friday.

The Trump administration stunned its Western allies by hosting the first high-level US discussions with Moscow since Russia invaded Ukraine little over three years ago, and this week's sessions follow suit.
The new American president had chastised Zelensky for not initiating peace negotiations sooner and seemed to hold him responsible for the war.
"You've been there for three years," he announced on Tuesday. "You ought to have stopped it... You ought not to have initiated it. You might have struck a bargain.
However, Trump responded to reporters who enquired about his upcoming meetings with Zelensky this Thursday after seeing Sir Keir by saying, "I think we're going to have a very good meeting tomorrow morning." We're going to have a great relationship."

In order to support any potential peace agreement, Zelensky will be looking to get security guarantees for his nation.

Trump said he was "open to many things" when asked about this on Thursday, but he preferred to reach an agreement between Russia and Ukraine before determining what steps might be taken to implement it.
Zelensky is anticipated to sign an agreement during his visit on Friday that would grant the United States access to Ukraine's rare earth mineral riches.

According to Trump, US mining operations in Ukraine would serve as a warning against further Russian assaults on the country.
He stated on Thursday, "It's a backstop, you could say," instead. "I don't think anybody's going to play around if we're there with a lot of workers and having to do with rare earths and other things which we need for our country."

The British prime minister has previously stated that the US, NATO's top member, would need to provide a "backstop" before the UK would be willing to send soldiers to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping mission following the battle.
Trump responded, "The British have incredible soldiers, incredible military, and they can take care of themselves," when asked if the US would support British peacekeepers in the event that Russia attacked them. However, I'll always be with the British if they need assistance, will I?"
According to Article 5, members of NATO will defend an ally who is being attacked.

Sir Keir said the UK was "ready to put boots on the ground and planes in the air to support a deal" and praised Trump's "personal commitment to bring peace" in Ukraine.
"We're focused now on bringing an enduring end to the barbaric war in Ukraine," he stated.
A peace agreement "that rewards the aggressor or that gives encouragement to regimes like Iran" is unacceptable, he continued.
The prime minister of the United Kingdom said that his opinions on Russian President Vladimir Putin were widely known when asked if he was trustworthy.

 

Trump responded, "I know a lot of people that you would say no chance that they would ever deceive you, and they are the worst people in the world," when asked why he appeared to believe Putin but Sir Keir did not. I know people you can be sure would cheat on you, but they're also completely honest, so you never know what you're getting."
Putin and Russia "do not want to have peace,"EU foreign policy leader Kaja Kallas told BBC News. Kallas was scheduled to see US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, but Rubio postponed the talks "due to scheduling issues."

"For any peace agreement to function, it needs the Europeans as well as Ukrainians on board," she stated.

Zelensky met Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin at Shannon Airport during his stopover in the Irish Republic on Thursday on his way to the United States.
"We discussed the steps to end the war with guaranteed peace for Ukraine and the whole of Europe," he continued.

Moscow seized the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and supported pro-Russian separatists in violent conflict in eastern Ukraine after the fall of Ukraine's pro-Russian president in 2014.
When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the situation escalated into a full-scale war.

Millions of Ukrainian civilians have left as refugees, and hundreds of thousands of people—mostly soldiers—have reportedly been killed or injured.
Russia currently controls portions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson in addition to Crimea.
Russia will not cede any territory to Ukraine as part of a peace agreement, the Kremlin declared Thursday.

 

"All territories that have become subjects of the Russian Federation... are an integral part of our country, Russia," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said to reporters. "This is an absolutely indisputable fact and a non-negotiable fact."
Separately, Russian and American officials convened in Istanbul, Turkey, to discuss re-establishing diplomatic relations.
When Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden, was in the White House, the two nuclear-armed superpowers kicked out each other's embassy employees.