CV NEWS FEED // One day after the Trump administration paused aid to Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote to President Donald Trump that he is “ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible” and wants to sign a mineral deal with the US which he had previously criticized.
“None of us wants an endless war,” Zelensky wrote Tuesday. “My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts… Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it in any time and in any convenient format.”
I would like to reiterate Ukraine’s commitment to peace.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 4, 2025
None of us wants an endless war. Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under…
Zelenskyy posted the statement on social media and also apparently sent it in the form of a letter to Trump, who quoted it during an address at a joint session of Congress Tuesday evening.
“Earlier today, I received an important letter from President Zelenskyy of Ukraine,” Trump said in his speech. He quoted Zelenskyy’s request to sign the mineral deal and to come back to the negotiating table.
“I appreciate that he sent this letter,” Trump said. “Simultaneously, we’ve had serious discussions with Russia and have received strong signals that they are ready for peace” as well.
The news comes days after Zelenskyy was removed from the White House following a tense Oval Office meeting with Trump and Vice President JD Vance late last month. During the meeting, negotiations over the minerals-for-security agreement and a potential ceasefire with Russia erupted into a heated argument.
The proposed deal would grant the U.S. access to Kyiv’s mineral resources in exchange for a reconstruction investment fund, but Zelenskyy had publicly pushed back, demanding stronger U.S. security guarantees.
In response, the Trump administration had announced Monday a freeze on all aid to Ukraine, aiming to pressure Zelenskyy into peace talks, as CatholicVote previously reported.
A White House official had told Fox News that the move was “not a permanent termination of aid,” but “a pause.”
Vance, speaking to reporters Tuesday morning, had confirmed the mineral deal remains on the table and reiterated Trump’s push for negotiations: “The President is still committed to the mineral deal. I think we’ve heard some positive things, but not yet, of course, a signature from our friends in Ukraine.”
“We need the Ukrainians privately to come to us and say, ‘This is what we need. This is what we want. This is how we’re going to participate in the process to end this conflict.’ That is the most important thing, and that lack of private engagement is what is most concerning to us,” he added.
Zelenskyy, who admitted the Oval Office meeting “did not go the way it was supposed to,” later signaled a willingness to move forward with the mineral deal.