US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should apologise after a public spat with his US counterpart Donald Trump in the Oval Office, an incident he described as a ‘fiasco’.
In an interview with CNN, Mr Rubio urged the Ukrainian leader to “apologise for making this incident the fiasco it has become for him”.
Mr Trump received Mr Zelensky at the White House on Friday in order to finalise negotiations on a crucial Ukrainian rare earths agreement, a pact that guaranteed continued US aid against Russia’s invasion in exchange for access to these resources.
However, during the meeting, Mr Zelensky left the presidential residence alone, without making any statement and without signing the agreement – considered to be one of the last hopes of preserving the link between Kiev and Washington – after a heated exchange with the American president in front of the main media gathered in the Oval Office and Trump declared: “If you hadn’t had our weapons, the war would have been over in two weeks in favour of Russia.”
In addition, Rubio said that “when you start talking so aggressively, you’re not going to bring people to the negotiating table”.
“You start to get the impression that maybe Zelensky doesn’t want a peace agreement. He says he wants it, but maybe he doesn’t,” said the Secretary of State.
