From AP / Yahoo!News:
"Trump envoy says Ukrainians 'brought it on themselves' after US pauses aid and intelligence sharing
"WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukraine was given “fair warning” by the White House before President Donald Trump this week ordered a pause on U.S. military assistance and intelligence sharing with Kyiv, a senior administration official said Thursday.
The Republican administration announced the pauses this week after Trump and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy'sOval Office meeting devolved into a shouting match, with the U.S. president and Vice President JD Vance excoriating the Ukrainian leader for being insufficiently grateful for the tens of billions of dollars in U.S. assistance sent to Ukraine since Russia invaded three years ago.
Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, said the pause is already having an impact on Kyiv, adding that the Ukrainians "brought it on themselves."
“The best way I can describe it is sort of like hitting a mule with a two-by-four across the nose,” Kellogg said at an event Thursday at the Council on Foreign Relations. “You got their attention.”
Kellogg said it was made clear to the Ukrainians before last week’s Oval Office meeting that the talks would focus on signing a critical minerals deal. The agreement, which the two sides still have not signed, would give the U.S. access to Ukraine's rare earth deposits... Zelenskyy had been pressing the White House for explicit security guarantees, to no avail.
Kellogg said last week's talks went sideways because Zelenskyy pressed Trump — who is trying to play the role of intermediary to broker peace between Ukraine and Russia — to side with Kyiv...
“I think what’s going to happen is Ukraine wants to make a deal, because I don’t think they have a choice,” Trump said."
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