A high-profile meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his United States counterpart Donald Trump has devolved into a shouting match, as the two leaders clashed over the future of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
On Friday, Zelenskyy arrived at the White House to discuss a proposed deal to give the US access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals, while pushing for US security assurances.
But as the two leaders sat down for a news conference in the Oval Office, the atmosphere quickly curdled, with Trump shouting at Zelenskyy, telling him to be “thankful” for US support.
“You’re either going to make a deal or we’re out,” Trump told Zelenskyy.
Shortly after the close of the meeting, Trump released a statement on social media, seeming to withdraw the US from negotiations with Ukraine and eject Zelenskyy from the White House. No deal was ultimately signed.
“I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace if America is involved,” Trump wrote. “He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace.”
For more than a decade, Ukraine has faced territorial incursions from Russia, culminating in a full-scale invasion that began in February 2022.
The international community has largely denounced Russia’s actions as illegal, and the US has been a pivotal partner in Ukraine’s defence, committing $65.9bn in military assistance since the start of the war three years ago.
But that support has come into doubt since Trump took office in January. Earlier this month, Trump spoke directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin and sent US envoys to negotiate a peace deal with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia, without Ukrainian or European participation.
Zelenskyy and other European leaders have denounced those proceedings as sidelining their interests.
Trump has since ratcheted up tensions, calling Zelenskyy a “dictator” for not holding wartime elections and accusing him of taking advantage of the US “gravy train”.
Zelenskyy was the third European leader to visit Trump this week, after French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. But unlike those leaders, who took pains to praise Trump, Zelenskyy openly contradicted Trump and called Putin a “ killer and terrorist”.
Here are key takeaways from their meeting.
Fractures emerge quickly in meeting
From the moment Zelenskyy arrived at the White House, there were indications the meeting would be prickly.
Trump greeted Zelenskyy at the White House driveway with a handshake and a quip about his outfit, which was a black version of his usual military uniform — a symbol of his status as a wartime president.
“He’s all dressed up today,” Trump said aloud, pointing at Zelenskyy’s outfit.
As the two leaders settled into the Oval Office for their first press appearance of the day, Trump launched into his usual talking points, touting the deal to access Ukraine’s rare earth minerals.
“ We’re gonna sign the agreement at the conference in the East Room in a little, while right after lunch,” Trump said.
“ We have something that is a very fair deal, and we look forward to getting in and digging, digging, digging and working and getting some of the rare earth.”
But very quickly, it became clear the two leaders were not on the same page about the deal.
Zelenskyy emphasised that any agreement needed to include real security assurances for Ukraine, something the US under Trump has so far avoided.
“I hope that this document, first document will be first step to real security guarantees for Ukraine,” the Ukrainian president said. “Our people, our children, are really counting it.”
A clash over relations with Putin
Trump also quickly touted his ongoing negotiations with Putin, saying that they had “very good discussions” together and would bring the war to a close.
The US president had previously said that it was “unlikely” that Ukraine would return to its pre-2014 borders, before Russia started to seize territories like Crimea and Donetsk. He also asserted that Ukraine’s attempts to join the NATO military alliance were a non-starter.
Critics accused Trump of giving Putin early concessions by making such remarks. And on Friday, Zelenskyy emphasised that Trump’s support would be “crucial” to maintaining Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
“I really count on your strong position to stop Putin,” Zelenskyy said. “I hope that together we can stop him. But for us, it’s very important to save our country, our values, our freedom and democracy. And of course, no compromises with the killer of our territories.”
Trump, for his part, tried to blame Zelenskyy’s animosity towards Putin for stalling peace talks. Meanwhile, he positioned himself as an “arbitrator” and “peacemaker” between the two warring sides.
“ You see the hatred he’s got for Putin. That’s tough to make a deal with that kind of hate,” Trump said to the reporters, gesturing to Zelenskyy.
He also doubled down on his claims that Ukraine would have to give something up to achieve peace with Russia: “I think you’re going to have to always make compromises. You can’t do any deals without compromises.”
But the Ukrainian leader pushed back, saying the war was not a clash of personalities but a violation of his country’s sovereignty.
“ Putin will never stop. And he’ll go further and further,” Zelenskyy said, as tensions started to boil over in the room. “He hates us. It’s not about me. He hates Ukrainians. He thinks that we’re not a nation.”
As the news conference spiralled into open aggression, with fingers wagging and voices raised, Trump started to lash out at both Zelenskyy and the reporters pressing him on whether he could trust Putin not to violate a potential ceasefire.
“ What if anything? What if a bomb drops on your head right now?” Trump snapped at a reporter, before offering a vehement, notably sympathetic defence of Putin.
He appeared to frame Putin as an ally in his political rivalry with the Democrats. Trump pointed to the federal investigation into his 2016 presidential campaign, which looked into allegations that Russia had intervened on the Republican’s behalf.
“ Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phoney witch-hunt where they used him and Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia. You ever hear of that deal?” Trump asked, calling the investigation a Democratic scam. “He had to go through that.”
Accusations of ‘disrespect’
The Trump team repeated well-worn accusations that the administration of his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, was responsible for allowing the war in Ukraine to start in the first place.
As tensions started to skyrocket, US Vice President JD Vance took a swing against Biden, accusing him of ”thumping [his] chest” to end the war. He added that, by contrast, the Trump administration was focused on diplomacy.
But Zelenskyy took issue with that assessment and questioned what kind of diplomacy with Putin would be even possible, given that the Russian leader had already broken a 2014 agreement to stop the fighting in Donetsk and Luhansk.
At that point, the ad hominem attacks began in earnest.
“ I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s gonna end the destruction of your country,” Vance replied. “ I think it’s disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media.”
When Zelenskyy pointed out that Vance had never been to Ukraine and had not felt firsthand the impact of the war, Trump cut in angrily.
“ Don’t tell us what we’re gonna feel. We’re trying to solve a problem. Don’t tell us what we’re gonna feel,” he retorted.
“ You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War III,” Trump continued, speaking over Zelenskyy. “You’re gambling with World War III and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country — this country.”
Zelenskyy repeatedly tried to interject that he did indeed hope to stop the war, but Trump appeared to be on a roll, berating the Ukrainian leader for showing insufficient gratitude.
“You have to be thankful. You don’t have the cards. You’re buried there. Your people are dying. You’re running low on soldiers,” Trump said. “ I’ve empowered you to be a tough guy, and I don’t think you’d be a tough guy without the United States.”
Within minutes, the meeting was at an end.
An uncertain future
No deal on rare earth minerals was signed that afternoon. A second news conference scheduled for later in the day was cancelled. And soon after, Zelenskyy was spotted exiting the White House in a dark vehicle, as a line of representatives from the Ukrainian delegation walked out of the building.
The war of words soon shifted to the internet, where each leader offered remarks on what transpired in the Oval Office.
“Much was learned that could never be understood without conversation under such fire and pressure,” Trump wrote on his platform, Truth Social. But he doubled down on his accusations that Zelenskyy had “disrespected” his office.
Zelenskyy, meanwhile, offered a brief, more neutral acknowledgement of the meeting, focusing on his gratitude for US support.
“Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you @POTUS, Congress, and the American people,” the Ukrainian leader wrote, using the social media handle for the US president. “Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that.”
Zelenskyy now heads to London for a meeting with European leaders — and with the fate of the US-Ukraine alliance up in the air.
Russian leaders quickly applauded Trump and Vance’s performance during the meeting.
“How Trump and Vance held back from hitting that scumbag is a miracle of restraint,” Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, wrote on Telegram.
Top Republicans like Senator Lindsey Graham also cheered Trump’s remarks. But many Democrats and prominent European leaders rallied to Zelenskyy’s defence.
“Dear Zelenskyy, dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone,” Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk quickly posted on social media.
What comes next is unclear — but analysts say the historic meeting may not mark the end of negotiations between the two allies just yet, particularly as the US seeks sources for rare earth minerals to rival China.
“I don’t think it means the cancellation of the deal,” Samuel Ramani, an analyst at the Royal United Services Institute in the UK, told Al Jazeera in an interview.
“I think that the deal has shown a lot of flexibility. The United States originally wanted over $500bn in minerals. The Ukrainians were able to kind of water that down into something that was more of a reconstruction agreement rather than something that was just pure collateral for military aid that was provided before.”
But experts agree that the full extent of the fallout is yet to be seen.
