Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's "about-face" on the minerals deal came after a "rude awakening" to the new president in the Oval Office and with his people back home, according to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
"I'm really grateful and glad that Zelenskyy, in the last several days, has done an about-face," Johnson told Sunday's "The Cats Roundtable" on WABC 770 AM, The Hill reported. "He's effectively apologized for all that. And he said, Oh no, no, we would like that deal after all.
"I think he had a rude awakening."
Zelenskyy has dropped his demand for security guarantees as an add-on to the minerals deal, finding his demands were not going to fly with President Donald Trump as they had for years with former President Joe Biden.
"I think a lot of the people in his country were upset with the way that was handled – certainly we all were – but we've got to get him back to the table," Johnson added to host John Catsimatidis.
Trump-backers arguing for the minerals deal say it would provide de facto security for Ukraine instead of direct military pledges, since American interests would be cemented in the country between the NATO front of Poland and Vladimir Putin's Russia.
Notably, Trump has called Zelenskyy a "dictator without elections," but did not push the Ukraine leader to restore democratic elections in his war-torn country.
But Johnson told Catsimatidis, if Zelenskyy cannot agree to a "deal for this country," Ukraine should "send a leader who can."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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