WASHINGTON: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting with US President Donald Trump ended in disaster, after the two leaders clashed in an extraordinary exchange before the world’s media at the White House over the war with Russia.
Zelenskyy had seen the meeting in the Oval Office as an opportunity to convince the United States not to side with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
Instead, US President Trump and Vice President JD Vance laid into Zelenskyy, saying he showed disrespect, driving relations with Kyiv’s most important wartime ally to a new low. The Ukrainian leader was told to leave, a US official said.
An agreement between Ukraine and the US to jointly develop Ukraine’s rich natural resources, which Kyiv and its European allies had hoped would usher in better relations, was left unsigned.
Trump has lurched toward Russia since taking over as president, shocking traditional allies in Europe and beyond and leaving Ukraine increasingly vulnerable. Friday’s outburst was the most public display of that shift.
The already-tense meeting blew up when Vance stressed the need for diplomacy to resolve the biggest conflict in Europe since World War Two. Zelenskyy, his arms folded, countered that Putin could not be trusted and noted that Vance had never visited Ukraine.
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