Days after their fiery Oval Office blowup, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky apologized to President Trump, US special envoy Steve Witkoff claimed Monday.
“Zelensky sent a letter to the president. He apologized for that whole incident that happened in the Oval Office,” Witkoff, 67, told Fox News on Monday.
“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.”
Trump, 78, publicly revealed that he received a letter from Zelensky, 47, last Tuesday during his annual presidential address to Congress last week. But Trump made no mention of receiving an apology.
The Post reached out to a Zelensky spokesperson for comment. A top aide, Mykhailo Podolyak, previously told French outlet Le Point that his boss wouldn’t apologize.
“Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians,” Trump read from Zelensky’s letter last week during his speech to Congress.
“We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence.”
US and Ukrainian officials are gearing up for a meeting in Saudi Arabia starting Tuesday to further iron out a plan to end the bloody war sparked by Russia’s unprovoked invasion.
The talks in Saudi Arabia are intended to get peace efforts back on track after tensions flared between Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Zelensky in the Oval Office on Feb. 28.
At the time, Zelensky had openly questioned Vance’s push for diplomacy with the Kremlin, citing Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s track record.
Following the verbal spat, Zelensky was booted from the White House, and the mineral agreement the two sides had been set to finalize was left unsigned.
Intelligence sharing and military aid to Ukraine had been put on pause during the aftermath of that acrimonious meeting, something CIA Director John Ratcliffe later confirmed. Witkoff claimed that from his “understanding,” intelligence sharing for strictly defense matters with Ukraine wasn’t completely “shut off.”
There are some indications that the mineral deal won’t be enough to get Trump to resume aid.
“They will sign the minerals deal but I want them to want peace,” Trump told reporters Sunday. “They haven’t shown it to the extent they should.”
Still, when asked Sunday if the US was ready to resume intelligence sharing, Trump told reporters, “We just about have.”
A chief concern for Zelensky has been to lock down security guarantees for his country.
“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,” Witkoff said.
Last week, Trump threatened Russia with “large-scale sanctions” and tariffs in response to Moscow “absolutely ‘pounding Ukraine on the battlefield.”
Trump later explained that he believes it is “more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine” than Russia, indicating frustrations that Kyiv thinks it has more cards to play than it actually has.
“Part of a mediation like this is to move the two sides closer, to narrow the differences,” Witkoff added. “We’ve gone a long way to do that with the Russians, and I am really hopeful — all the signs are really, really positive from Zelensky.”
On paper, Wikoff is technically the special envoy to the Middle East, but the real estate mogul has been significantly involved in negotiations over the war in Ukraine.
