House Speaker Mike Johnson said Zelenskyy's shift on the minerals deal followed a "rude awakening" in the Oval Office and among his people at home, News.Az informs via News Max.
"I'm really grateful and glad that Zelenskyy, in the last several days, has done an about face," Johnson told Sunday's "The Cats Roundtable" on WABC 770 AM, The Hill reported. "He's effectively apologized for all that. And he said, 'Oh no, no, we would like that deal after all.'
"I think he had a rude awakening."
Zelenskyy has dropped his demand for security guarantees as an add-on to the minerals deal, finding his demands were not going to fly with President Donald Trump as they had for years with former President Joe Biden.
"I think a lot of the people in his country were upset with the way that was handled – certainly we all were – but we've got to get him back to the table," Johnson added to host John Catsimatidis.
Trump backers arguing for the minerals deal say it would provide de facto security for Ukraine instead of direct military pledges, since American interests would be cemented in the country between the NATO front of Poland and Vladimir Putin's Russia.
Notably, Trump has called Zelenskyy a "dictator without elections," but did not push the Ukraine leader to restore democratic elections in his war-torn country.
But Johnson told Catsimatidis, if Zelenskyy cannot agree to a "deal for this country," Ukraine should "send a leader who can."
