KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday said he wanted to “make things right” with Donald Trump and to work under the United States (US) President’s “strong leadership” to secure a lasting peace in Ukraine.

In his first public comments since Trump halted US military aid to Ukraine overnight, Zelensky called for a “truce” in the sea and sky as a first step to securing an end to the three-year-long war.

“Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts,” Zelensky said in a post on X.

He said Ukraine was ready to agree to a “truce in the sky — ban on missiles, long-ranged drones, bombs on energy and other civilian infrastructure — and truce in the sea immediately, if Russia will do the same”.

Zelensky clashed with Trump and US Vice-President JD Vance over Washington’s stance on the war in a stunning exchange in the Oval Office on Friday.

The spat capped weeks of escalating tensions between the two leaders, after Trump called his Ukrainian counterpart a “dictator” and Zelensky said the Republican had succumbed to Russian “disinformation”.

“Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go the way it was supposed to be. It is regrettable that it happened this way. It is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive,” Zelensky said in his post on X.

He also said that Kyiv was ready to sign a deal giving the US preferential access to Ukraine’s natural resources and minerals at “any time and in any convenient format”.

The deal was supposed to be inked in Washington last week before Zelensky was kicked out of the White House after the public row with Trump.