Washington – An extraordinary diplomatic break that developed in the Oval Office on Friday when President Trump and Vice President JD Vance publicly insulted the Ukrainian president. Volodymyr Zelensky, As an ungrateful ally who risks the global war in its ongoing defense against Russian invaders.
Trump and Zelensky opened their meeting, which was planned for the planned signing of a joint agreement on access to the rare minerals of Ukraine with free conditions and the deal comes as a specific American investment in the future of Ukraine.
However, the tensions quickly changed the way when Vance accused the Ukrainian president of undermining Trump in public.
“I think it is disrespectful for you to get to the Oval Office to argue from the American media,” said Vance. “Did you say 'thank you' once?”
Zelensky's first words to the president were at the meeting: “Thank you very much, Mr. President. Thanks for the invitation. “
Zelensky had announced Trump that Russian President Vladimir Putin could not be familiar with that Putin's territorial ambitions had to be stopped and that Ukraine would request security guarantees to end the war in every deal.
“We will never only accept ceasefire,” said Zelensky. Kyiv has repeatedly warned that freezing the battle front would enable Moscow to strengthen its positions, anchor themselves in the occupied area and come back to find more.
The remarks caused Trump to accuse Zelensky of having no recognition for us for US support.
“You cannot complete any offers without compromises,” said Trump. Both Trump and Vance warned Zelensky that Ukraine does little to do soldiers.
“The problem is that I have enabled you to be a hard guy. And I don't think they would be a hard guy without the United States, ”said Trump. “Your people are very brave. You will either make a deal or we're outside. And when we are on the go, you will fight it – I don't think it will be pretty, but you will fight it. But you don't have the cards.
“As soon as we sign this deal, you are in a much better position,” added Trump. “But you are not grateful at all, and that's not a nice thing.”
“I don't play cards,” said Zelensky.
“You are not really in a good position at the moment,” said Trump and increased his voice. “You play with the life of millions of people. They play with the Second World War. “
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Parts over
In the room, the Ukraine ambassador held her face in her hands in the United States. Marco Rubio, the US state secretary, seemed to be visibly uncomfortable when the meeting deteriorated.
It was an extraordinary reproduction of a US ally without precedent, even for Trump, who often used common phenomena with the leaders of the world in his first term in order to promote his interests. This time Zelensky pushed back and entered Cross discussion with Trump and Vance, which showed the president and his team a measure of defiance.
Shortly after the meeting, Trump and Zelensky canceled a planned joint press conference. The mineral agreement was not signed.
Instead, Zelensky was asked to leave, said officials from the White House and Trump Posted on social media that he should return to Washington “if he is ready for peace”.
“I found that President Zelensky is not ready for peace when America is involved because he believes that our commitment gives him a great advantage in the negotiations,” he said. “I don't want an advantage, I want peace. He respected the United States of America in his esteemed oval office. “
Zelensky too, wrote on social media After the meeting. “Thank you America, thank you very much for your support, thank you very much for this visit,” he said. “Thank you @Potus, congress and the American people. Ukraine needs just and permanent peace, and we work for that. “
Vice President JD Vance, Center Right, speaks to the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Center on the left when President Trump hears on Friday in the Oval Office.
(Mystyslav Chernov / Associated Press)
Democratic legislators were shaken by the common appearance, and at least one Republican criticized Trump's performance. MP Don Bacon from Nebraska, a member of the House Armed Service committee, said the meeting was “a bad day for America's foreign policy”.
“Ukraine wants independence, free markets and the rule of law,” said Bacon. “It wants to be part of the West. Russia hates and our western values. We should be clear that we stand for freedom. “
But Trump's cabinet members – including the leading agencies that are not related to foreign policy, praised the performance of the president as an issue of American toughness.
So also the Russian leadership. “The insolent pig finally got a proper blow to the Oval Office,” wrote Dmitry Medwedev, a government official and former Russia's former president.
The European leaders ask Trump to maintain US support for Ukraine, even though they have withdrawn the Republican support for the war efforts. Trump has opened direct negotiations with Russia, the first talks between the two nations since Russia launched his full invasion of Ukraine into Ukraine three years ago-and has withdrawn the US government language in which Russia was characterized as an aggressor in the war.
Both France and the United Kingdom have announced that they contribute to a peace safety mission and use boots on site in Ukraine alongside other European troops. The Trump government has excluded to contribute to the US armed forces to these efforts, and the President said that Ukraine could “forget” the organization of the North Atlantic Contract, a long -term goal of Kyiv, to which Putin rejected.
After the Oval Office meeting with Donald Tusk, the Poland Prime Minister, the European officials, the concern, expressed solidarity with Ukraine.
“Dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone,” wrote Tusk.
The British Prime Minister Keir Starrer in the Oval Office on Thursday said that Trump had created an “enormous opportunity” to make peace. But he added that an agreement had to be drawn up that would prevent Russia from restarting the war across the board.
Zelensky was vague about the types of security guarantees suitable for his country. He had come to Washington in the hope of clarity as to whether Trump would support the use of Russian assets that were frozen at the beginning of the war and whether Washington is planning to increase sanctions against Moscow.
The fears that Trump could convey a peace agreement with Russia that is unfavorable for Ukraine has been reinforced by the recent precedents by his government. Trump kept a lengthy call with Putin, and US officials met with her Russian colleagues in Saudi Arabia without inviting the European or Ukrainian leaders -to isolate both dramatic breaks with previous US policy, Putin on the invasion.
Trump later seemed to blame Ukraine for the beginning of the war, and claimed that Zelensky was a “dictator” because he had not held elections after the end of his regular term in last year, although the Ukrainian law prohibits elections.
After the White House had taken control of access to the media to the president this week, a reporter from TASS, a Russian news agency, made it possible for other reporters in the Oval Office when Trump and Zelensky met on Friday. Reuters and the Associated Press were excluded.
Pinho reported from Washington, Wilner from Los Angeles. This article contains reporting from the Associated Press.