to State of the Union Ukrainian president zalinsky and European leaders are scrambling to revive talks on Ukraine's future here with me now for the latest is the White House National Security adviser Mike Waltz thank you so much for being here sir I want to ask for your view on what the Ukrainian president said after that Oval Office meeting he repeatedly went online he thanked the US and president Trump for uh the help that the US is giving saying it is crucial to have the president support that no one wants peace more than we do is
that enough for president Trump to get things back on track well the president took uh calls from prime minister starmer uh he uh yesterday he's also taken a call from uh prime minister Maloney of of Italy uh zalinski president zalinsky is with those European leaders now those European leaders are talking to him directly about getting to the negotiation table what does he need to see to actually negotiate with us and negotiate with the Russians go to confidence building measures go to a ceasefire uh and bring this horrific War to an end and what was so
I think stunning to all of us in the Oval Office was that it was not clear zalinsky was going to go to negotiations at all that he would ever uh be able to negotiate with Putin uh and whether he shared our goal of ending this War uh so what I made clear as secretary Rubio and I said look this cannot proceed was that this was a huge missed opportunity for him and for his country he could have left the White House on Friday on the heels of an engagement with President macron of France with President
uh with prime minister starmer of the United Kingdom where they were talking about European boots on the ground security guarantees for Ukraine a positive uh a positive movement towards ending this war and being having Ukraine and United States being bound together for a generation economically but that what we made clear was that could not proceed at least for now and president Trump said in his uh announcement on X when President sininsky is ready to truly engage for peace he's welcome back any time so what does the president need what does President Trump need does he
need a public apology does he want a phone call can you be specific in how to make that happen well you know it wasn't clear to us that that president zinsky was was ready to negotiate in in in good faith towards an end of this war you know for us kind of you talking about the details and demands of security guarantees before as president Trump said look I don't know that we can get both sides to the table at this point and you know you can't kind of trash the other side going you know litigating
through the history of this conflict if we're going to bring both sides to the table uh and so that and further coming to the Oval Office uh you know with the body language the shaking of head the you know the kind of the arms crossed uh we just we found it incredibly disrespectful uh we were ready to sign that deal I want to address directly that this was some type of Ambush is is absolutely fult we had false we had negotiated the minerals deal uh in the weeks prior uh it was difficult but we it
was done and finalized and ready to be signed uh in the East room so since you've been talking about his body language and and and his his approach I do want to ask about your view of Vladimir zalinski because right after the Ukraine war happened after Russia invaded Ukraine to be more specific you were on CNN and you called zalinsky a 21st century Church Hill because of how he was leading the fight against Russian tyranny and yesterday you called him uh or at least you compared him to an ex-girl who wants to argue everything that
you said 9 years ago rather than moving forward is that really how you see it now and do you see at all the perspective that he was trying to put out there which is that he does not trust Vladimir Putin and he feels that he needs some kind of security guarantee well Donna you know I would also point out if if we want to do a history lesson on Churchill uh that he stood and fought uh for his people president zalinski stood and fought uh for for Ukraine but Churchill was also voted out of office
in 1945 he was a man for a moment but he did not then transition England into the next phase and it's unclear whether president zalinski particularly after what we saw Friday is ready to transition to Ukraine to an end to this war and to negotiate and have to compromise and what president Trump said right there that day in the Oval Office is both sides are going to compromise here he's made that clear to both Vladimir Putin and zalinski but it did not appear to us that zilinski was ready to go to Peace So when he
makes that clear to us uh publicly and privately that's what I mean that's the president is trying to end this war he campaigned on it he was elected on it and that's going to take tough diplomacy who would criticize us but you have members of Democrats that are criticizing us for dealing with the Russians that Democrats that had no problem dealing with the murderous Iranian regime in an Iran deal that was horrific and used the Russians as intermediaries I think you got one of those Senators coming on your show so it's uh so I'm finding
the kind of hypocritical Pearl clutching in in Washington DC to be a well a bit ridiculous can I just follow up on what you said about Winston Churchill because it is interesting he was definitely a man for the moment during World War I are you suggesting that president Trump wants zalinsky to resign we need uh a leader that can deal with us eventually deal with the Russians and end this war uh and if it becomes apparent that President zelinski's either personal motivations or political motivations are Divergent from ending the fighting in his country uh then
then I think we have a real issue on our hands but look Donna let's ask ourselves what is this war going to look like a year from now the patience of the American people to keep giving billions and billions and billions with no end in sight uh is not unlimited and we also made that clear to president zinsky at the end uh of that meeting it's time on his side it's time on the American people's side what I'm saying is this war needs to end and that's going to take concessions on territory that's going to
take Russian concessions on cons security guarantees that's going to take all sides coming to the table and we are working very hard to drive those negotiations forward we had our engagement in Riad with the Russians we are working to have an engagement uh we thought a deal with the with uh the ukrainians and then we'll bring all sides together that only President Trump can do that uh and I find it incredulous he's being criticized for that you just mentioned a specific uh uh concession potentially that you would like Vladimir Putin to make can you elaborate
on that because we haven't heard any specifics before well we can't get any specifics from the ukrainians but this will clearly be some type of territorial concession for for security guarantees uh going forward I mean that has been discussed uh in previous rounds of negoti and we think that is a broader framework who guarantees that security well right now in under so some some first principles this needs to be a permanent end not a temporary end this needs to be European Le security guarantees going forward part of that is Europe's contribution to its own defense
so it has the capability to do so we've had both the United Kingdom and France talking about their troops uh uh on the ground going forward and then you know let's not get too far ahead of ourselves what type of support we provide or not uh is to be negotiated but one thing is clear we do not see Ukraine being a member of NATO because that would automatically drag US troops in but but Donna you know look we need to get all sides to the table and we're very frustrated that we did not see that
from the ukrainians after we had negotiated a minerals deal that would bind us together grow their economy uh and change the nature of our Aid so that the American taxpayer could recup what are your was all done and ready to be signed on Friday what are your conversations like right now with the Russians uh in terms of reopening conversations and perhaps uh diplomatic normalization embassies and so forth well secretary Rubio's team at a working level have met with the Russians about broadening uh our Embassy operations they were virtually shut down uh on on all sides
we don't I mean it's just a practical matter in common sense uh if we're going to drive these negotiations forward our embassies have to be uh operable those conversations are happening uh and we're also having conversations about how they will end and what they need to see to end this war there will obviously be differences on all sides and the United States through shuttle diplomacy and the leadership of President Trump will drive forward to bridge those gaps our point is you know talking about the fine details of security guarantees is like talking about the details
of a warranty before you know if you're going to buy the thing we we're we're we're driving both sides to the negotiating table and yet people are trying to put the cart before the horse and last question there are reports that the Trump Administration you are uh talking about pausing offensive Cy cyber operations against Russia is that true uh that has not been part of of our discussions uh there will be all kinds of carrots and sticks to get this war to an end all right uh National Security adviser Mike Waltz thank you so much
for your time this morning appreciate it okay thanks Don and Democrat
