Both of the most contentious exchanges between Trump and Zelenskyy followed shortly after Trump had spoken directly with Putin — conversations in which Putin reportedly raised the prospect of expansive joint economic ventures. That exchange between Trump and Zelenskyy at the White House unfolded in the Oval Office during February 2025, with the episode described here coming just before it.
Reports indicate that economic incentives formed part of the overtures Putin directed at Trump, alongside arguments that appeared to shift his positions closer to those held in Moscow and widen the distance between him and Zelenskyy. In the period leading up to the meeting at the White House, Putin put forward a proposal to Trump for a collaborative arrangement to extract rare earth minerals from Ukrainian territories under Russian military control. At the same time, a separate arrangement was being negotiated to draw rare minerals out of Ukraine, while the economic opening under discussion — along with other proposed areas of cooperation — was put forward as a potentially profitable one for the United States.
A deal announced by Washington permitting diesel sales by Moscow came to Ukraine's attention only after the arrangement had already been put in place. According to reports, Trump read Russia's expressed openness to economic cooperation as an indication that Moscow held a genuine desire to reach a peace agreement.
Roman Anin, an investigative journalist who has devoted roughly fifteen years to studying Russia's security apparatus and organised crime networks, contends that Putin draws on behavioural codes rooted in those worlds — particularly the culture associated with siloviki, the security-service operatives — to steer Trump's choices toward outcomes that benefit the Kremlin. Within that analytical lens, Trump is labelled a bariga — a term drawn from Russian criminal underworld vocabulary that denotes a commercially minded operator who places personal financial advantage ahead of any guiding values. According to Anin's analysis, Putin's reported objective is to position Trump as a lokh — a term from criminal underworld culture describing someone unfamiliar with its unwritten rules who ends up advancing the agenda of a particular group without fully grasping how they have been used.
In a meeting with Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance, Zelenskyy put forward a message; Vance told him that past agreements had gone unfulfilled on Putin's part and that halting military operations was not a course he planned to take — a position that members of the American delegation interpreted as Ukraine showing limited willingness to engage in peace talks.
On the fuel-supply question, Putin has reportedly characterised Ukrainian drone and missile attacks on Russian oil refineries as an obstacle blocking any deal, a framing that places responsibility for the stalled talks on Zelenskyy. His public statements have cast him in the role of a leader open to talks and negotiation. Drone and missile attacks on energy infrastructure, which Russian officials attribute to Ukraine, have been cited by those officials as an obstacle standing in the way of any return to negotiations.
The oil agreement is being treated by envoys from the administration as a potential first step toward restarting talks with Russia, according to multiple news outlets in the United States.
On Monday, Lavrov told reporters that Zelenskyy had not, in his view, done enough to merit a ceasefire arrangement, and that Moscow would not place confidence in assurances from Kyiv a second time — remarks that arrived alongside separate, repeated public statements from Trump casting doubt on Zelenskyy's standing as a democratically elected leader, a line Trump had also taken earlier in 2025. Trump had previously labelled Zelenskyy a "dictator without elections" and later called for Ukraine to install a new president, remarks that some observers read as an indication that he viewed a change in leadership as a path toward reaching a peace agreement. Moscow publicly aligned itself with those remarks, a stance that has not shifted since armed forces crossed into Ukraine in 2022.
Some analysts have described Putin's approach as one aimed at exploiting Trump's preference for a swift end to the conflict as a way to erode US backing for Ukraine.
Reports indicate that intelligence-sharing arrangements with Ukraine's military were placed under review, with continuation tied to Kyiv's willingness to enter peace talks — a development attributed to fallout from the earlier White House meeting. According to unverified accounts, intelligence-sharing arrangements have been held out as a bargaining tool in ongoing dealings with Zelenskyy, mirroring a pattern attributed to the Pentagon in earlier exchanges.
