White House official says Zelenskyy apologized to Trump, calls it 'progress' toward a deal

A special envoy of the Trump administration said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had apologized in a letter to President Donald Trump and called it "progress" toward a minerals deal.

Special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff told Fox News that Zelenskyy had reached out to make amends after an explosive disagreement between him, the president, and the vice president over a proposed minerals deal.

'They just need to be put on the table and everybody needs to be transparent about what their expectations are.'

"Zelenskyy sent a letter to the president. He apologized for that whole incident that happened in the Oval Office," Witkoff said.

"I think that was an important step, and there's been a lot of discussion between our teams and the Ukrainians and the Europeans, who are relevant to this discussion as well," he added. "And I would like to describe it as progress. And so I would hope there's a deal."

Zelenskyy was accused by Vice President JD Vance of unfairly trying to litigate the details of the deal and past events in public, while the Ukrainian leader argued that Russian President Vladimir Putin had already violated various agreements.

"Mr. President, with respect, I think it's disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media," Vance said to him during the meeting. "Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict."

Some previous supporters of Zelenskyy like Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina have turned on the president and called for his ouster in order for relations with the U.S. to improve.

The rare-earth minerals deal was meant to help the U.S. recover some of the billions spent to support Ukraine while securing closer economic ties between the two nations. Trump has said that the deal was likely to be signed between the two countries.

"These are not complicated things," Witkoff continued. "They just need to be put on the table and everybody needs to be transparent about what their expectations are. Then we can begin to have a discussion around how we compromise."

Video of the interview with Witkoff can be viewed on Fox News' YouTube channel.

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