The White House on Thursday urged Ukraine to rein in its criticisms and quickly sign a minerals deal pushed by US President Donald Trump.
This is as the US government continued to press Kyiv with its efforts to bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
In an interview with Fox News, the White House national security adviser, Mike Waltz said, “They need to tone it down and take a hard look and sign that deal.”
According to him, given everything the United States has done for Ukraine, pushback from Ukraine on the minerals deal and how Trump is carrying out peace talks is simply unacceptable.
These comments are coming a day after Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy traded insults, with Trump calling Zelenskiy a dictator and Zelenskiy saying the US president was living in a disinformation bubble and spewing talking points from Moscow.
Waltz, however, said US differences with Ukraine were not irreconcilable.