Trump slams Zelenskyy for rejecting Ukraine-Russia negotiations, claims a deal was 'very close'

LONDON — President Donald Trump slammed Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, accusing him of derailing negotiations to end the war in Ukraine while a peace deal was “very close.”

In a long post on Truth Social, Trump described Zelenskyy’s rejection of Russia's takeover of Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, as “very harmful” to achieving peace.

“It’s inflammatory statements like Zelenskyy’s that makes it so difficult to settle this War,” Trump wrote.

Zelenskyy has consistently rejected the suggestion that his country give up its claim to the Crimean Peninsula.

“There’s nothing to talk about here,” he said at a media conference Tuesday. “This is against our constitution.”

Trump's post comes after months of discord between the two leaders, including a heated exchange during a Zelenskyy visit to the Oval Office in February. The two men had a near-shouting match when Zelenskyy noted that Russia has broken agreements with Ukraine in the past in a disagreement that included Vice President JD Vance.

The situation escalated when Trump raised his voice and pointed his finger at Zelenskyy, accusing him of "gambling with World War III" and being "disrespectful" to the U.S.

Trump ordered a pause on military aid, including providing Ukraine with intelligence, following the Oval Office clash.

Zelenskyy urged Trump to visit Ukraine earlier this month after Russia launched two ballistic missiles at the Ukrainian city of Sumy, killing 34 people and injuring 119. He suggested that a visit to the destruction would help U.S. leadership "understand what Putin did."

Special envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Paris last week. Ludovic Marin / AFP - Getty Images

High-level talks aimed at bringing a pause to fighting in Ukraine disintegrated earlier after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff pulled out, dealing a blow to Kyiv’s hopes for a short-term peace agreement.

While ministerial talks that had been planned in London fell apart, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, still planned to meet with Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak, who arrived in London early Wednesday along with the Ukrainian defense and foreign ministers.

“Despite everything, we continue working for peace,” Yermak said in a post on X.

Vance said he was "optimistic" about the talks, but also doubled down on the threat to walk away from negotiations.

"I think that we put together a very fair proposal," Vance told reporters on his trip in India. "We're going to see if the Europeans, the Russians and the Ukrainians are ultimately able to get this thing over the finish line."

The latest setback comes during a week in which the Trump administration has doubled down on its efforts to push Kyiv and Moscow toward a truce. Next week marks 100 days of Trump's second presidential term, and he promised to end the war on his first day back in office. Rubio suggested last week that the United States may walk away from ceasefire efforts, failing any further progress.

Earlier, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the U.S. has not set a deadline for a ceasefire and that "Russia does not consider it appropriate to set deadlines either," Russian news agency Tass reported.

"The downgrading is significant," said Bence Németh, a senior lecturer in the defense studies department at King’s College London, citing Zelenskyy's rejection that Russia maintain control of Crimea as part of any deal.

Rubio and Witkoff's absence "suggests that Washington is increasingly disinterested in drawn-out, multilateral negotiations," Németh added. "This is not just about diplomacy fatigue. It also signals a hard pivot: The U.S. is not positioning itself as a neutral mediator."

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce confirmed Tuesday that Rubio would skip the meeting hours after saying the opposite. “That is not a statement regarding the meetings. It’s a statement about logistical issues in his schedule,” he said.

Despite initial plans to attend the scheduled talks, neither Rubio nor Witkoff were in London on Wednesday, a European diplomat told NBC News.

The British Foreign Ministry said that “the Ukraine peace talks meeting with foreign ministers today is being postponed," with top officials from France and Germany also confirming their absence.

As well as meeting with Kellogg, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post on X that he, Yermak and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov would sit down with the British foreign and defense ministers.

Yulia Svyrydenko, the country’s deputy prime minister, added in a post on X that Ukraine was ready to negotiate, “but not to surrender.”

“Our people will not accept a frozen conflict disguised as peace,” Svyrydenko wrote.

Expectations that Kyiv and Moscow would make a deal to end their three-year war this week remained low after the U.S. presented Ukraine and its European allies with peace proposals last week in Paris that both sides saw as unacceptable, according to NBC News’ international partner, Sky News.

Under a “terms sheet” offered by Rubio and Witkoff, a land-for-peace deal would recognize Russia’s currently illegal annexation of Crimea and work toward lifting European Union sanctions on Russia. Both parties have since rejected the terms.

After months of upbeat statements on indirect U.S.-led talks, but limited practical engagement, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday suggested for the first time that he would be open to bilateral ceasefire talks with Zelenskyy.

The issue of Crimea may well be one of the most difficult points of difference to overcome, said Matthew Savill, director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank.

"I think it will be extraordinarily difficult, bordering on political suicide, for him [Zelenskyy] to commit to paper on things like giving up Crimea," Savill said. That said, "Ukraine is not going to recapture Crimea anytime soon. Ukraine is unlikely to be a NATO member anytime soon."

"There might be some formulation [of a deal] that effectively kicks those into the long grass," Savill added, with the caveat that "the terms of any deal at the moment are not going to be particularly favorable to Ukraine."