After negotiations between President Donald Trump and Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blew up last week, senators are looking for Trump to lay out concrete steps on where talks can go from here during his joint address Tuesday.
“He’s got to have a plan,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville said. “We’ve gotten millions of people hurt and killed. So it’s just sad. It’s sad how we handle wars here. We get way too involved.”
In less than a week, Trump and Vice President JD Vance publicly lectured Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, took a minerals deal off the table until Zelenskyy was “ready for Peace,” and paused military aid to Ukraine.
On Tuesday, Zelenskyy, in an apparent attempt to repair the damage, issued a statement saying he was ready to return to the negotiating table. Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, posted on X that he had spoken with Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, and that there was a consensus that “a just peace and the mineral agreement with the U.S. economic partnership is crucial for both our countries.”
Senators told NOTUS they want to hear Trump speak on Tuesday about the progress made on the minerals deal that the president has placed at the center of his negotiations with Ukraine.
Sen. Mike Rounds said that he sees Zelenskyy’s most recent responses to Trump as positive developments — and that he’s hoping Trump will capitalize on them.
“I think we will hear him say that the president is hopeful that they’ll put together the first steps of a peace deal in Ukraine,” Rounds said. “The minerals deal is the first step.”
Sen. Todd Young said he was hopeful Trump would address Ukraine and share “good news.” He wants Trump to give an accounting of the “current state of Ukraine negotiations,” along with other international issues.
“I think there’s an opportunity, any day, for a significant breakthrough in negotiations,” Young said. “I’m hoping that we’ll have an update about that possibility.”
The White House’s decision to suspend military aid to Ukraine after Friday’s meeting surprised some senators.
Sen. Thom Tillis said he doesn’t think “any one speech or any one comment” could solve the current issues between the countries.
“This is a very emotional environment for a man who has led a country that’s been on constant attack, 24 hours a day for three years,” Tillis said of Zelenskyy when asked if he thinks Trump will try to mend the relationship during the address. “He has seen the obituaries of hundreds of thousands of people. He has seen the accounts of thousands of rapes and kidnappings, so I’d say that, you know this guy is, you know, he’s carrying a lot of weight.”
“I think it would be helpful to recognize — that’s a lot of grief and pain,” Tillis said.
That said, not all Republicans were looking for Trump’s speech to focus on international relations.
“I don’t know if he changed his speech. I imagine the speech was written before that meeting took place,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin told NOTUS.
“But the President has a tendency to say what’s on his mind, too. That’s why we appreciate him,” Mullin said.
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John T. Seward is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.