Trump reveals letter from Zelensky saying Ukraine ready for new peace talks, minerals deal

U.S. President Donald Trump revealed Tuesday that he had received a letter from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier that day which said that Ukraine is "ready come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer."

During an address at a joint session of the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C., Trump said he appreciated that Zelensky had sent the letter, which comes just days after a fractious meeting between the two presidents at the White House.

Trump also mentioned that the U.S. has had serious discussions with Russia and received strong signals that "they are ready for peace." There has been no response from Russia to these statements.

In a post on the social media platform X on Tuesday, Zelensky stressed nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians and said he stands ready "to work under President Trump's strong leadership" to achieve lasting peace.

Ukraine is ready to sign mineral and security agreements with the U.S. at "any time and in any convenient format," Zelensky said in the post.

The signing of a minerals deal between the two sides had been planned for Friday before the meeting between Trump and Zelensky took a dramatic turn, leading to a rare shouting match erupting in front of the media in the Oval Office.

Following the televised confrontation, Zelensky was asked to leave the White House early, leaving the planned minerals deal unsigned.

Referencing the incident in his X post, the Ukrainian president said it was "regrettable" the meeting "did not go the way it was supposed to" but said it was now "time to make things right," saying he hopes future cooperation and communication can be constructive.

Trump reveals letter from Zelensky saying Ukraine ready for new peace talks, minerals deal

Trump reveals letter from Zelensky saying Ukraine ready for new peace talks, minerals deal

The death toll from a landfill collapse in the central Philippine city of Cebu has risen to eight by Monday morning as search and rescue operations continued for another 28 missing people.

The landfill collapse occurred on Thursday as dozens of sanitation workers were working at the site. The disaster has already caused injuries of 18 people.

Family members of the missing people said the rescue progress is slow, and the hope for the survival of their loved ones is fading.

"For me, maybe I’ve accepted the worst result already because the garbage is poisonous and yesterday, it was raining very hard the whole day. Maybe they’ve been poisoned. For us, alive or dead, I hope we can get their bodies out of the garbage rubble," said Maria Kareen Rubin, a family member of a victim.

Families have set up camps on high ground near the landfill, awaiting news of their relatives. Some people at the site said cries for help could still be heard hours after the landfill collapsed, but these voices gradually faded away.

Bienvenido Ranido, who lost his wife in the disaster, said he can't believe all that happened.

"After they gave my wife oxygen, my kids and I were expecting that she would be saved that night because she was still alive. But the night came and till the next morning, they didn't manage to save her," he said.

Death toll in central Philippine landfill collapse rises to eight