‘Very important Ukraine is heard’ — Zelenskyy – DW – 03/01/2025

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his US counterpart Donald Trump openly clashed during their meeting at the White House on Friday.

It began after Zelenskyy pressed Vice President JD Vance to explain what he meant by engaging in diplomacy with Russia to end the war in Ukraine.

Vance responded by telling the Ukrainian leader, “I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media.”

Trump then openly berated Zelenskyy for not being “thankful,” and later accused the Ukrainian leader of “not being ready for peace” and having “disrespected” the US.

“You’re not acting at all thankful. It’s not a nice thing,” the US president said, when Zelenskyy pushed for security guarantees. “It’s going to be very hard to do business like this,” he added.

“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.

“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 added.

After the heated exchange in the Oval Office, Trump broke off talks with Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian leader left the White House without signing a critical minerals deal that had been negotiated by the two sides in recent days.