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| - Zelenskyy did meet with Democratic U.S. senators ...
... but that meeting also included at least three Republican senators. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, emphatically rejected claims that the Democrats of the U.S. Senate delegation had dissuaded Zelenskyy from taking the minerals deal. Further, Zelenskyy confirmed to reporters two days after the meeting that his country was ready to accept the deal.
After a contentious Feb. 28, 2025, meeting in the White House between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in which Trump accused him of not being grateful enough for U.S. support in Ukraine's war with Russia, rumors started to spread.
One such rumor was that before the Oval Office meeting, Zelenskyy had met with "anti-Trump" Democrats, who dissuaded him from accepting Trump's so-called
These claims spread on social media. For example, a March 2, 2025, post on X said the Democrats in effect
As of this writing, the post had gained 1 million views and 17,000 likes. The claim appeared multiple times on X, but also on Facebook. Further, U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez, a Republican from Florida, said in a television interview with Fox Business that "Democrats had sunk the deal on purpose" (archived):
Snopes' readers also inquired about the rumor's veracity. In sum, the claim consisted of a mixture of truth and falsehood.
The rumor stemmed from an opinion column in the New York Post, a right-leaning publication, by Michael Goodwin. Goodwin based his claims on an X post by U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, which he wrote after Zelenskyy met with several U.S. senators on Feb. 28, 2025 (archived):
Zelenskyy appears in the photograph with his team. To his right is Andriy Borysovych Yermak, head of the Office of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. To his left, Yuliya Svyrydenko, first vice prime minister of Ukraine; Rustem Umerov, defense minister of Ukraine; and Ihor Brusylo, deputy head of the office of the president. At the end of the table, Ukraine's flag and the United States' flag stand side-by-side.
While Goodwin was correct that Zelenskyy met with Murphy on Feb. 28, 2025, before the meeting with Trump, his column obscured the fact that Republican elected officials attended the same meeting, as well. Zelenskyy met with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina. This is according to a photograph Coons shared on X immediately after that meeting, in which he posed with Klobuchar, Graham and Zelenskyy (archived):
Further, Zelenskyy posted a video of the meeting on X. In the video, two other Republican senators appear: Sen. Chuck Grassley, from Iowa, and Sen. Roger Wicker, from Mississippi (archived):
In his video post, Zelenskyy said he'd met with a "bipartisan delegation of the U.S. Senate," and that he and his team were "grateful for the unwavering bicameral and bipartisan support for Ukraine throughout all three years of Russia's full-scale aggression."
Among the topics they discussed, according to Zelenskyy, were "continued military assistance for Ukraine, relevant legislative initiatives, my
In response to claims that Democrats had persuaded Zelenskyy to turn down the deal on minerals, Murphy posted an emphatic rebuke on X (archived):
"Total lie," Murphy said. "Made up out of thin air. Zero sources." In a long thread, Murphy documented how those claims had spread on social media among the far-right and Trump supporters.
We have contacted all of the U.S. senators we could identify to confirm Murphy's assertion that Democrats had not pushed Zelenskyy to turn down the deal. We will update this story should they respond.
Further undermining claims that Democrats had tanked the deal, Zelenskyy told journalists on March 2, 2025, that Ukraine was ready to take it.
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