EDITORIAL: Zelenskyy moves to thaw the ice with White House

In the wake of his confrontational meeting at the White House, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy struck a far more conciliatory tone on Tuesday and said he is ready negotiate a road to peace. The Trump administration should take him at his word.

“Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go the way it was supposed to be,” Zelenskyy wrote in an X post. “It is regrettable that it happened this way. It is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive.”

On Monday, just days after his contentious encounter with Zelenskyy, President Donald Trump announced that he was pausing all military aid to Ukraine in its effort to combat Russian aggression. The Ukrainian president’s comments were clearly intended to defuse the escalating tensions.

Zelenskyy said he was “grateful” for American help and praised Mr. Trump. “Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer,” he said. “My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.”

Zelenskyy even laid out some of the potential concessions he’s willing to make to push the process forward. They include releasing Russian prisoners of war, ending drone and missile strikes in Russia territory and imposing a truce at sea — if Russia “will do the same.” He added that Ukraine was “ready to work fast to end the war,” a nod to Mr. Trump’s partiality for a quick deal.

Mr. Trump and his team should seize this opportunity to restart negotiations with Ukraine regarding mineral rights and to get the parties back on track for negotiations to end this senseless war. The New York Times notes that Russia’s Putin has in the past “shown a willingness to do side deals with Ukraine,” including prisoners exchanges and potential peace talks in Qatar. The challenge for Mr. Trump will be to broker a peace that doesn’t leave Ukraine a Russian satellite state while also convincing Putin that it’s in his best interests to stop wasting his country’s resources, capital and human, on territorial expansion.

Up to this point, Putin has had little incentive to do anything except continue the hostilities while watching Western nations bicker with each other over the war. Zelenskyy’s efforts at rapprochement with the Trump administration are a pragmatic diplomatic move in the aftermath of last week’s unfortunate blowup. Let’s hope they are also the concession that convinces the White House to allow the ice to thaw with Ukraine and to jump-start the peace process, putting pressure on Putin and Russia to get serious about talks.