Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s special envoy to the Middle East, said Monday Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy apologized to President Trump in a letter after their Oval Office shouting match.
“Zelenskyy sent a letter to the president. He apologized for that whole incident that happened in the Oval Office,” Mr. Witkoff said in a Fox News interview. “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.”
Mr. Witkoff described the apology letter as “progress.”
The revelation of the note comes one day before Ukrainian and U.S. officials are scheduled to meet in Saudi Arabia to discuss ending Ukraine’s three-year war with Russia.
During Mr. Trump’s joint address to Congress last week, he said he had received a letter from Mr. Zelenskyy saying his country was ready to improve relations with the U.S. Mr. Trump did not describe it as an apology letter. In the meeting between the two leaders, Mr. Trump accused Mr. Zelenskyy of not showing gratitude for U.S. military aid.
After the Oval Office dustup, Mr. Zelenskyy called the meeting “regrettable,” but did not issue an apology. He appeared on Fox News hours after the fiery meeting, but declined numerous opportunities to apologize.
Talks are scheduled to take place in the Red Sea city of Jeddah as Mr. Trump pushes to secure a ceasefire and a “framework” for a peace agreement in the conflict that has raged since February 2022.
The talks will focus on developing a framework for a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow. Mr. Zelenskyy said last week that the first stages of a peace plan could include the release of prisoners; a ban on missiles, long-range drones and the bombing of energy and other civilian infrastructure; and a “truce in the sea.”
The two sides will also discuss a deal on critical minerals, which will allow the U.S. to invest in Ukraine’s rare earth minerals. A minerals deal was expected to be signed during Mr. Zelenskyy’s visit to the White House, but the agreement went unsigned after the Oval Office blowup between the two leaders.
Mr. Witkoff said a key negotiating point will be discussing security protocols and territorial issues in a post-war Ukraine if a ceasefire can be struck.
“These are not complicated things, they just … need to be put on the table and everybody needs to be transparent about what their expectations are, then we begin to have a discussion about how we compromise,” he said.
