Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy chose to blow up an economic deal between Ukraine and the U.S. during a tense Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump on Friday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday, adding that there is no deal presently on the table.
Bessent appeared on CBS’ "Face the Nation," where he described that a critical part of Trump’s idea for the economic arrangement between Ukraine and the U.S. was "to further intertwine" the people of the two nations and show the Russian leadership "there was no daylight" between the two.
"And President Zelenskyy came into the Oval Office and tried to relitigate in front of the world the deal," he said. "The place to have done it would have been in the private lunch."
Zelenskyy's meeting with Trump and Vice President JD Vance erupted into a shouting match at the White House on Friday that was seen worldwide when the Ukrainian president pressed the American leaders for security guarantees against Russia.
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"We had President of France Emmanuel Macron in on Monday. Great meeting. We had Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday. Fantastic meetings," Bessent said. "They were all on board the arc of the peace agreement. All President Zelensky had to do was come in and sign this economic agreement. And again, show no daylight, no daylight between Ukrainian people and the American people. And he chose to blow that up."
Bessent blamed Zelenskyy, who left the White House without signing the deal, for having "thrown out the sequence" toward a possible peace deal to end the war with Russia.
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As far as security guarantees, Bessent said he believed the plan is for the European Union to provide Ukraine with security, emphasizing that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) would not.
Bessent said everything had been in place to have the economic deal signed prior to the Oval Office blowout, adding that, as of Sunday, no such deal was on the table any longer.
As part of negotiations to end the Russia-Ukraine War, the Trump administration was angling for Zelenskyy to sign an agreement that would allow the U.S. access to Ukraine’s minerals in exchange for support the U.S. has provided the country since Russia's invasion in 2022.
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Congress has appropriated $175 billion since 2022 for aid to Ukraine, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy contributed to this report.
