(From left to right) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, US President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a TV-aired meeting within the Oval Office at the White House on February 28, 2025, in Washington, DC, USA. (Photo by Getty Images)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called on the visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to apologize for clashing with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Friday.
In an interview with CNN, Rubio called on Zelensky to “apologize for turning this thing into the fiasco for him that it became,” after his White House meeting with Trump and Vice President JD Vance turned into a shouting match.
The top US diplomat also questioned whether Zelensky wanted to end the Ukraine war that started in February 2022.
“When you start talking about that aggressively – and the president is a deal maker, he made deals his entire life – you’re not going to get people to the table,” Rubio said.
“And so you start to perceive that maybe Zelensky doesn’t want a peace deal. He says he does, but maybe he doesn’t,” Rubio added.
Zelensky had come to the White House to finalize an agreement granting the US access to Ukraine’s lucrative rare-earth minerals.
However, the meeting between Zelensky and Trump quickly turned into a verbal clash.
Vice President JD Vance intervened, suggesting to Zelensky to try “diplomacy” as a means to resolve his wartime problems.
The Ukrainian actor-turned-president disputed the effectiveness of Vance’s suggestion, asking, “What kind of diplomacy?” prompting the US vice president to accuse him of being “disrespectful” in the White House.
The US president then retook the reins, backing his vice president by further humiliating and scolding Zelensky for his ingratitude for all the $350 billion in military aid sent to Kiev.
“You’re not acting thankful,” Trump said, before saying he is “gambling with World War III” by refusing to negotiate with Russia.
“You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people,” Trump stated.
Trump then delivered an ultimatum to Zelensky: “You’re either going to make a deal, or we’re out. And if we’re out, you’ll fight it out—and I don’t think it’s going to be pretty.”
He told the Ukrainian president to come back “when he is ready for peace.”
The US president had invited the Ukrainian president to seal a deal on Ukraine’s money-spinning rare-earth minerals.
Trump has said the mineral resources deal is the first step towards a ceasefire agreement he seeks to broker between Russia and Ukraine.
Zelensky left the White House early, and a press conference to announce the minerals deal was canceled.