Washington, 1/3: The stunning blow-up between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House came after weeks of frustration by Trump and his top aides who saw the Ukrainian leader as an obstacle to their goals of quickly ending the war, restoring ties with Moscow and sealing a potentially lucrative minerals deal, multiple sources familiar with the matter said.
The U.S. president has long taken an adversarial stance toward Zelenskyy and Ukraine. But the divide between the Ukrainian leader and the Trump White House has ballooned in recent days as talks over a much-anticipated minerals deal for joint development of Ukraine’s natural resources got bogged down.