Rubio says Zelenskyy should apologize after argument with Trump and Vance in Oval Office

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday evening that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should apologize for a heated exchange in the Oval Office that scuttled plans for an economic partnership between the two countries.

Zelenskyy declined that evening in an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier to apologize to President Donald Trump.

"There was no need for him to go in there and become antagonistic," Rubio told CNN's Kaitlan Collins in an interview. "I think he should apologize for wasting our time for a meeting that was gonna end the way it did."

Zelenskyy was in Washington to sign an “economic partnership” deal which would have given the U.S. access to critical minerals in Ukraine. Trump has long said he wanted the deal in exchange for American military support. The Ukrainian delegation was asked to leave the White House after the argument.

Testy exchange

Zelenskyy began the meeting by reasserting his desire for security guarantees from the U.S. to ensure Russia doesn't restart the conflict after a peace deal. He made clear he won't compromise with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he called "a killer and terrorist."

The testy exchange before reporters began about 40 minutes into the 50 minute meeting with Vice President JD Vance praising Trump for negotiating directly with Russia to end the war that began with Russia's 2022 invasion and occupation of Ukraine. Ukraine and other European countries were not invited to be part of the negotiations.

Zelenskyy argued that Russia's prior actions have shown it to be an untrustworthy diplomatic partner, to which Vance responded that the Ukrainian president was being "disrespectful" to Trump.

Rubio said that Zelenskyy should not have insisted on traveling to Washington to sign the agreement in person and that arguing in public with Trump and Vance that diplomacy would not work with Russia harms Trump's ability to get Russia to the negotiating table. Rubio said Zelenskyy was trying to get Trump into a position of having to attack Putin.

"Don't come here and create a scenario where you are going to start lecturing us about how diplomacy isn't going to work," Rubio said.