US official demands Zelenskyy return to talks over critical minerals deal
Al Jazeera
White House national security adviser Mike Waltz also criticises Kyiv over ‘insults’ to US president.
US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser has demanded that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy return to negotiations over a critical minerals deal with the US, amid a deepening rift between Washington and Kyiv.
Zelenskyy had on Wednesday rejected US plans to strike a deal for a share of Ukraine’s mineral wealth to repay Washington for wartime aid, saying the US offered no specific security guarantees in the agreement.
“He needs to come back to the table,” Mike Waltz said of Zelenskyy at a press briefing on Thursday.
“President Trump is obviously very frustrated right now with President Zelensky, the fact that he hasn’t come to the table, that he hasn’t been willing to take this opportunity that we have offered,” he said.
The comments came shortly after the US cancelled a planned news conference with Zelenskyy and a US envoy in Kyiv.
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