In scenes that were historic in their vulgarity, what resembled a verbal pub brawl broke out with Trump and Vance talking over Zelensky who was trying to both thank the US for the help his country had got, explain how vulnerable it is, drive home that Putin could not be trusted, and survive volleys of chain-shot lies. – Sam Kiley
Ukraine’s president sat down to discuss what he thought was a mineral deal with a Donald Trump who’d had an affable week of diplomacy with other Europeans. It was a trap. Volodymyr Zelensky walked into an ambush.
Warmly greeted on his arrival at the White House, he was met by Trump at the door who joked that the Ukrainian president had spruced himself up for the meeting by wearing an all-black outfit.
Pretty soon, Zelensky was reeling. The early shots, in what would escalate into a volley of assaults by J.D. Vance, the US vice-president, came from a journalist.
“Why don’t you wear a suit?” he was asked.
It wasn’t a question, it was an insult. And one that has been a constant meme on right-wing, anti-Ukrainian, Russian-backed social media posts which have made much of Zelensky’s combat-style uniform which he has worn at all international meetings since his country was invaded.
“I’ll wear a costume like yours when the war is over,” Zelensky replied and shifted in his golden chair, rolling his eyes.
“I have got more serious things to do than answering such questions,” Zelensky said, going on to explain that Vladimir Putin had broken “25 ceasefires” after previous agreements to stop fighting.
Zelensky’s team had been worried that he was being lured to America to discuss an extortionate mineral deal, which actually offered no security guarantees for his country, while Trump forged ahead with a “peace agreement” organised with Putin but excluding Ukraine.
“We’re worried that he will go and then reject it and then look unreasonable and that that is the gameplan all along,” said a senior politician in Kyiv before Zelensky set off to the US.
But the Ukrainian president’s party could not have foreseen that Zelensky would have found himself so firmly in the sights of American leaders intent on gunning him down.
Zelensky is known to be prickly and sees his country, genuinely, as defending democracy against the depredations of a dictator. His generals all say that they have been given enough weapons by allies, including the US, to “bleed but not win”.
When Zelensky observed that Russia’s ambitions would not stop at Ukraine and that the US could be affected, he triggered a burst from the verbal machine gun on Trump’s left flank who blasted away with demands that Zelensky express his profound gratitude for US support.
“You didn’t say thank you,” Vance shouted.
Zelensky, fought back: “I said a lot of times thank you to American people.”
But by then, it had all gone pell-mell.
In scenes that were historic in their vulgarity, what resembled a verbal pub brawl broke out with Trump and Vance talking over Zelensky who was trying to both thank the US for the help his country had got, explain how vulnerable it is, drive home that Putin could not be trusted, and survive volleys of chain-shot lies.
Ukraine has not received $350bn from the US, he had said “thank you”, many of his cities were not in ruins and so on. He said, early on, that he didn’t want Trump’s deal with Russia to be a “compromise with a killer [Putin]”.
”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 him.
“You don’t have the cards. Once we sign that deal, you’re in a much better position. But you’re not acting at all thankful, and that’s not a nice thing. I’ll be honest. That’s not a nice thing.
“You are gambling with world war three,” Trump shouted over a protesting Zelensky.
Then, when the shouting in public was over, Zelensky was sent away. The minerals deal is off and Zelensky is now firmly a bad guy in the eyes of Trump and his supporters.
“I have determined that President Zelensky 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. He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace,” Trump wrote in a later post on Truth Social before the Ukrainian president had even struggled out of the White House.
Like his country, he survived another ambush and can now be in no doubt where his friends are—and they are not in the White House. – The Independent, 28 February 2025
› Sam Kiley is a Senior International Correspondent at CNN.
Filed under: russia, ukraine, USA | Tagged: donald trump, failed diplomacy, russia-ukraine war, US aid to ukraine, volodymyr zelensky | Comments Off on Trump and Vance ambush Zelensky – Sam Kiley
