New Delhi: A discussion during the visit of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the White House led to extraordinary scenes in which US president Donald Trump and his vice-president J.D. Vance loudly berated the visitor in language seldom seen in situations involving diplomacy.
On February 25, three years after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a Trump-led US had joined Russia, Belarus and North Korea in voting against a EU and Ukraine-backed resolution for peace in the region.
On the backdrop of this, Zelenskyy had travelled to Washington to sign a critical and controversial minerals deal when the prickly talk took place at the Oval Office. It was broadcast live.
WATCH IN FULL: All 46 minutes of the Oval Office meeting between President Donald J. Trump and President Zelenskyy pic.twitter.com/L88QejnhRA
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 28, 2025
US media reported that Trump and other officials felt disrespected and asked Zelenskyy to leave. Zelenskyy abruptly departed the White House. A planned joint press conference between him and Trump was cancelled.
In the aftermath, Trump has said he is not currently interested in revisiting or reviving the deal, a senior White House official told Reuters news agency.
“I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations. I don’t want advantage, I want PEACE,” Trump wrote in the post on his Truth Social platform.
The meeting
The New York Times said the meeting was “one of the most dramatic moments ever to play out in public in the Oval Office and underscored the radical break between the United States and Ukraine since Mr Trump took office”.
“You’re not acting at all thankful. It’s not a nice thing,” the US president told Zelenskyy as he pushed for security guarantees. “It’s going to be very hard to do business like this,” he added.
“You’re either going to make a deal, or we’re out, and if we’re out, you’ll fight it out. I don’t think it’s going to be pretty,” Trump told Zelenskyy.
Trump and Vance also called Zelenskyy “disrespectful,” as the Ukrainian leader asked for a US security commitment.
“You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War III, and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country that’s backed you far more than a lot of people say they should have,” Trump said.
The Ukrainian president shook his head and crossed his arms as Trump and Vance accused him of being ungrateful.
Vance’s words were particularly searing. He accused Zelenskyy of “litigating in front of the American media”. He asked Zelenskyy, “Have you said thank you even once?”.
In response, Zelenskyy appears to be posting messages of thanks to absolutely everyone who has expressed support to him and Ukraine on X.
After Vance accused Zelensky of not saying thank you, Zelensky is now tweeting individual thanks to every single world leader expressing solidarity with Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/ClTCENxJyz
— Kareem Rifai 🌐 (@KareemRifai) February 28, 2025
Vance also claimed Zelenskyy had gone “to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October,” before the presidential election in 2024, but NYT noted that the visit played out differently and that Zelenskyy visited an ammunition factory in Scranton and thanked workers for manufacturing artillery shells to support Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said that Vance should come to Ukraine to see the extent of destruction that Russia had caused.
Trump, according to reports, said, “This is going to be great television.”
Support
European leaders have largely supported Zelenskyy. DW has collated their reactions. French president Emmanuel Macron said that Russia is the aggressor and Ukrainians are the aggressed people.
“We must… respect those who have been fighting since the beginning,” Macron told reporters in Portugal.
The French president later wrote on X: “There is one attacker: Russia. There is one people under attack: Ukraine.”
Polish prime minister Donald Tusk wrote on X: “Dear President Zelenskyy, dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone,”
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez wrote: “Ukraine, Spain stands with you” on X in three languages, Spanish, English and Ukrainian.
Leaders of German, Denmark, the Netherlands, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Norway, Finland, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Slovenia, Belgium, Lithuania, Luxembourg, and Ireland have also spoken in Zelenskyy’s support.
US Democrats have also rushed to support Zelenskyy.
Russia
Meanwhile, Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund who was part of the February 18 Russia-US talks in Saudi Arabia called the heated confrontation in the Oval Office “historic” on X.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said it was a “miracle” that Trump and Vance managed to restrain themselves from hitting Zelenskyy.
“I think Zelenskyy’s biggest lie of all his lies was his assertion in the White House that the Kyiv regime in 2022 was alone, without support,” she wrote on Telegram.
Dmitri Medvedev, the former Russian president and the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, also took to his Telegram channel, and praised Trump for “telling the truth” to Zelenskyy’s face and urged him to suspend military aid for Ukraine, NYT reported.
The suspended deal
Any lack of Ukrainian enthusiasm for the deal is understandable, an analysis on Conversation said.
The deal on offer was the creation of what will be called a “reconstruction investment fund”, to be jointly owned and managed by the US and Ukraine.
Fifty percent of the revenue from the exploitation of “all relevant Ukrainian government-owned natural resource assets (whether owned directly or indirectly by the Ukrainian government)” and “other infrastructure relevant to natural resource assets (such as liquified natural gas terminals and port infrastructure)” were supposed to go to the fund, meaning that much of the private infrastructure owned by Ukraine’s wealthy oligarchs is likely to become part of the deal.
“This has the potential of further increasing friction between Zelensky and some very powerful Ukrainians,” the analysis said.
US contributions are less clearly defined – stemming from Trump’s idea that Ukraine already owes money to the US because of its aid support.
