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Donald Trump meets Zelenskyy at White House, says want to get Ukraine conflict 'solved'
'I am not aligned with Putin. I'm aligned with the US and the good of the world,' Trump said.
US President Donald Trump on Friday hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House.
Zelenskyy is in the United States to sign a deal to share Ukraine's mineral riches, reported AFP. The deal would offer the US easy access to Kyiv’s deep reserves of oil, gas and critical rare-earth minerals used in tech products.
Trump told Zelenskyy that he would like to “solve” the Ukrainian conflict, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to “make a deal”, reported Reuters.
“I am not aligned with Putin. I'm aligned with the US and the good of the world,” Trump said, according to Reuters.
Trump also said the US wants to see the killing in the war stopped, adding that US money for Ukraine should be "put to different kinds of use like rebuilding,” according to AP.
During his visit to the Washington, the Ukrainian delegation is expected to sign the landmark economic agreement with the US aimed at financing the reconstruction of war-damaged Ukraine, a deal that would closely tie the two countries together for years to come.
"We'll be dig, dig, digging" for Ukraine's resources, Trump had said on Thursday ahead of the meeting between the two leaders.
Also on the agenda is the war between Ukraine and Russia. Trump changed years of American policy after he spoke to Russia's Vladimir Putin regarding Ukraine – without Kyiv's involvement.
Lately, Trump has been taking potshots at Zelenskyy, calling him a “dictator” and warning that he "better move fast" to negotiate an end to the war or risk not having a nation to lead.
He, however, later backtracked on the remarks, saying: ""Did I say that? I can't believe I said that."
In response, Zelenskyy has remarked that Trump was living in a Russian-made "disinformation space".
The back-and-forth comes amid an escalation of tension between the two leaders and rising concern in many European capitals over the Trump administration's re-engagement with Russia.
