U.S. President Donald Trump's latest comments about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom he called a "dictator without elections," were due to the fact that "Trump was very upset with President Zelenskyy," including for neither being grateful enough to the United States, nor agreeing to sign a minerals deal, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

“I think President Trump is very upset at President Zelenskyy and – and some – and rightfully so. Look, number one, Joe Biden had frustrations with Zelenskyy. … There are newspaper articles out there about how he cursed at him in a phone call because Zelenskyy, instead of saying thank you for all your help, is immediately out there messaging what we’re not doing or what he’s not getting,” he said in an interview published on the U.S. State Department website.

In addition, Rubio noted that there was a conversation with President Zelenskyy. “And we discussed this issue about the mineral rights, and we explained to them, look, we want to be in a joint venture with you – not because we’re trying to steal from your country, but because we think that’s actually a security guarantee. If we’re your partner in an important economic endeavor, we get to get paid back some of the money the taxpayers have given – close to $200 billion. And it also – now we have a vested interest in the security of Ukraine,” he said.

According to him, Zelenskyy expressed a desire to conclude this agreement, but added that it "needs to be carried out through the legislative process."

Rubio also noted the following: “One of the points the President [Trump] made in his messaging is it’s not that we don’t care about Ukraine, but Ukraine is on another continent. It doesn’t directly impact the daily lives of Americans. We care about it because it has implications for our allies and ultimately for the world. There should be some level of gratitude here about this, and when you don’t see it and you see him out there accusing the President of living in a world of disinformation, that’s highly, very counterproductive.”

According to Rubio, Trump “is willing to work on peace because he cares about Ukraine, and he hopes Zelenskyy will be a partner in that and not someone who’s out there putting the sort of counter-messaging to try to hustle us in that regard. That’s not going to be productive here.”

Rubio also spoke about the importance of cooperation with Putin and resolving the problem of the war with Ukraine, since it interferes with the resolution of other geopolitical issues. “There are things we [USA and Russia] could cooperate on geopolitically, potentially. I mean, there are items of the world where I think we have a common interest. I’m not sure the Russians are fans of the Iranian regime having nuclear weapons, as an example, and so forth. But we can’t work on those things … as long as this Ukraine impediment stands in the way. ”