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President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky apologized to Trump in a letter after a explosive public argument during an Oval Office meeting.
“Zelensky sent a letter to the president. He apologized for that whole incident that happened in the Oval Office,” Witkoff said Monday on Fox News. “I think that it 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.”
U.S. and Ukrainian officials are set to meet in Saudi Arabia this week to pick back up on peace negotiations to end the war with Russia.
Witkoff said he thought Zelensky sending Trump a letter to apologize for the fiery meeting was “progress.”
In Trump’s joint address to Congress, he shared that he received a letter from Zelensky in an effort for the countries to smooth out ties. Trump said he appreciated the letter, which came just days after the U.S. halted military assistance to Ukraine.
Shortly after the fiery meeting between Zelensky and Trump, the Ukrainian leader called it a “regrettable” gathering, but stopped short of issuing an apology.
Zelensky, however, signaled that Ukraine was still ready to come to the negotiating table after the meeting, where the U.S. and Ukraine had been slated to come to an agreement on a minerals deal.
Witkoff said it’s important for the officials to discuss security protocols for Ukrainians, territorial issues and a utility plan.
“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 can begin to have a discussion about how we compromise,” he said.
