Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has admitted to feeling snubbed by President Trump’s decision to call Russian leader Vladimir Putin to discuss Moscow’s three-year-old invasion before contacting Kyiv, saying the move was “not pleasant.”
During a visit to a nuclear power plant in western Ukraine Thursday, Zelensky argued that negotiations with the Kremlin should only commence after “a plan to stop Putin has been worked out.”
“As an independent country we simply cannot accept any agreements without us,” Zelensky said, according to CNN. “And I articulate this very clearly to our partners: We will not accept any bilateral negotiations on Ukraine without us.”
On Wednesday, Trump publicly revealed that he spoke with Putin on the phone and claimed that the US and Russia had agreed to talk “immediately” about bringing Europe’s largest and bloodiest conflict since World War II to a close.
Only after announcing the Putin call did Trump speak with Zelensky, who described their chat as a “meaningful conversation” about “opportunities to achieve peace.”
“No one wants peace more than Ukraine,” Zelensky said Wednesday. “Together with the US, we are charting our next steps to stop Russian aggression and ensure a lasting, reliable peace. As President Trump said, let’s get it done.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent visited Ukraine and met with Zelensky this week to discuss Trump’s goal of obtaining access to the country’s vast mineral resources in return for US security assistance.
“Great talks with Russia and Ukraine yesterday,” Trump posted to Truth Social Thursday about the two calls. “Good possibility of ending that horrible, very bloody war!!”
Last week, Trump revealed to The Post that he had already spoken with Putin, but did not elaborate on what was discussed.
“Zelensky will have to do what he has to do,” Trump told reporters Wednesday. “But his poll numbers are not particularly great, to put it mildly.”
Still, the US president also suggested that he wouldn’t necessarily end American aid to Ukraine immediately because “Putin would say he’s won.”
Last month, Trump also threatened Moscow with “high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries.”
Zelensky also suggested in an interview published Tuesday by The Guardian that he was open to a negotiated settlement, saying: “We will swap one territory for another. I don’t know, we will see. But all our territories are important, there is no priority.”
Ukraine currently possesses land in Russia’s Kursk region thanks to a successful military operation back in August of last year.
