How Zelensky maneuvered himself with Trump from the dog house

February 28th was one of the darkest days for Ukraine since the invasion of Russia three years ago. An Oval Office visit by President Volodymyr Zelensky wanted to win favor with President Trump, and prompted Mr. Trump to banish his guest from the White House without serving a planned lunch.

Mr. Trump was already a deep skeptic of US support for Ukraine. After the catastrophic meeting with Mr. Zelensky, he accelerated his diplomacy with President Vladimir V. Putin from Russia and designed a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine that offered Moscow considerable concessions. The supporters of Ukraine were panicked.

But there is new hope in Kyiv.

One day after the Trump government announced an economic contract with Ukraine, which gives the United States a share in future mineral revenue, analysts say that the country's prospects look brighter than in months.

“These are very good signs that something could change,” said Alina Polyakova, President and Managing Director of the Center for European Policy Analysis.

“It seems as if the Trump government has changed compared to the previous approach, she said and called the mineral contract” a win-win situation for both sides “, which” negotiated “the Ukraine.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky also seemed to organize a friendly meeting in the Vatican on Saturday, as Mr. Trump was increasingly frustrated in the separate talks to pay the war.