The patience of the American people is not unlimited, US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz has warned
US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz has warned Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky not to test the limits of American patience, financial support, and military resources, arguing that now is the time to shift towards negotiations rather than prolonging the conflict with Russia.
“[Zelensky] is not ready to talk peace at all. Here is the problem, time is not on his side. Time is not on the side of just forever continuing this conflict,” Waltz said on Fox News on Monday.
Zelensky’s visit to the White House last Friday was abruptly cut short after a heated exchange with US President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance in front of the media. During the shouting match, the Ukrainian leader again ruled out the possibility of talks with Moscow, demanded security guarantees from Washington, refused to acknowledge that Kiev’s forces are experiencing manpower shortages and implied that Vance could not have known anything about his country’s problems because he’s never been there.
In the aftermath of the tense Oval Office meeting, Waltz suggested that Zelensky’s failure to achieve a good outcome was a “real disservice” to Ukraine.
“It was really confounding to us that Zelensky could have left the White House Friday having the US and Ukraine bound together economically for a generation,” he said. Zelensky was expected to finalize a deal with the US granting the latter access to Ukraine’s vast deposits of mineral resources to compensate Washington for past military aid.
Waltz also criticized the ongoing “World War I-style trench warfare” as a costly strategy and underscored Trump’s commitment to ending the conflict.
When pressed by a CNN presenter last Sunday as to whether the White House wanted Zelensky to step down, Waltz clarified that “we need a leader that can deal with us, eventually deal with the Russians, and end this war.”
In an interview with Breitbart Radio on Saturday, Waltz compared Zelensky to an “ex-girlfriend that wants to argue everything that you said nine years ago, rather than moving the relationship forward.”
