Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday expressed gratitude to President Donald Trump and the American people for their support amid the Russian invasion after a major dustup at the Oval Office upended a planned minerals deal. He declined to apologize for his part in the televised spat.

"I'm very thankful to to Americans for all your support. You did a lot. I'm thankful to President Trump and to Congress bipartisan support. And I was always very thankful from all our people, you helped us a lot from the very beginning, during three years of full scale innovation, you helped us to survive," he said during an interview with Fox News's Bret Baier.

He declined, however, to apologize for his behavior during the exchange.

"No, I respect president and I respect American people," he added. "And if I don't know if I think that we have to be very open and very honest, and I'm not sure that we did something bad, I think maybe sometimes, some, some, some things we have to discuss, out of out of media, with all respect to democracy and to a free media but there are things that, where we have to understand the position of Ukraine and Ukrainians, and I think that is the most important thing."