Updated April 23, 2025 at 17:35 PM ET
LONDON — Tensions between the Trump administration and Ukraine's leader emerged again on Wednesday, even as the countries attempted to engage in talks to end Russia's war on Ukraine.
President Trump took to the Truth Social platform to lash out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after he rejected a proposal to accept Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
Trump cited Zelenskyy's comment that "Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea. There's nothing to talk about here." Then Trump wrote, "inflammatory statements" like that are harmful for peace negotiations with Russia and will just "prolong the 'killing field.' "
Earlier, Vice President Vance told reporters on a visit to India that the administration had issued a "very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians and it's time for them to either say 'yes' or for the United States to walk away from this process."
He said the U.S. proposal included a freeze on the "territorial lines at some level close to where they are today," adding, "that means the Ukrainians and the Russians are going to have to give up some of the territory they currently own."
When asked about the negotiation process, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said "the president is frustrated, his patience is running very thin."
Their comments came as officials were to meet in London to discuss ways to end the war. This round of talks included lower-level officials than originally planned, with Trump's special envoy Keith Kellogg representing the U.S., after Secretary of State Marco Rubio canceled and the French and German ministers also backed out.
Ahead of the talks, Rubio and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said they had a "productive" call Tuesday.
The British Foreign Office did not issue a statement about the changed circumstances, and did not respond to NPR's calls or emails seeking comment. Lammy did say on social media he had a "valuable meeting" with both Ukraine's foreign and defense ministers.
Despite Trump's campaign pledge for a quick end to the war in Ukraine, analysts say, the Trump administration has shown it may not want to stick with this process.
"This is not necessarily an administration that is committed to patient, long-term diplomacy," says Ian Lesser, an expert on U.S. foreign policy and trans-Atlantic relations at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, who previously worked at the State Department. "I think they have other things they would rather focus on, and if there aren't ready prospects of success, I imagine the attention span may be short."
The White House separately announced that special envoy Steve Witkoff will return to Moscow this week for what would be his fourth face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a sign that the U.S. would continue efforts to negotiate details of a ceasefire directly with Russia.
Speaking to French magazine Le Point, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov insisted that a necessary condition for peace would be the Ukrainian military withdrawal from four regions that Russia claims to have annexed.
Other Russian demands include no NATO membership for Ukraine and international sanctions lifted on Russia.
The challenge for the ongoing dialogue between U.S. and European leaders — as it has been since the White House argument between Trump and Zelenskyy — is that the U.S. expects Ukraine to make major concessions to Russia.
But nations like France, Germany and the U.K. have continued to insist that support for Ukraine — military, political and economic — is necessary to ensure that Putin is forced to negotiate on more equal terms.
From the European perspective, leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have sought U.S. guarantees for Ukraine's long-term security, as well as help with funding any eventual reconstruction of the devastated nation.
"The terms that the Trump administration is pushing to settle this conflict run completely counter to European interest," says Neil Melvin, director of international security at the Royal United Services Institute, a defense think tank in London, "and it looks, I think, particularly from a European perspective, as though the United States is now siding more with the aggressor in the war than the victim."
Trump has previously accused Ukraine of starting the war launched by Russia and failing to end it. Trump has also threatened an end to all U.S. support for Ukraine and its military.
Meanwhile, the fighting continued Wednesday, with the Ukrainian government saying a Russian drone struck a bus carrying civilian workers in the eastern city of Marganets, killing nine people.
Alex Leff reported from Washington, D.C.
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