Trump halts talks with Ukraine after catastrophic meeting with ‘disrespectful’ Zelensky

“You haven’t been alone,” Trump replied. “If you didn’t have our military equipment this war would have been over in two weeks.”

Vance told Zelensky: “I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media … you should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.”

Zelensky challenged Vance on whether he had been to Ukraine to observe the situation first hand. Vance then accused Zelensky of bringing people on “propaganda tours” of Ukraine.

Fox News reported Zelensky was asked to leave the White House despite the Ukrainians asking to “reset” following the dispute. The White House and members of Trump’s cabinet quickly embraced the catastrophic meeting and collapse of relations, pushing Trump’s statement out on social media along with video clips of the Oval Office argument.

Cabinet members rallied around the president, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio posting on X: “Thank you @POTUS for standing up for America in a way that no President has ever had the courage to do before. Thank you for putting America First. America is with you!”

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Ukraine advocate, said he was proud of Trump for “showing the American people and the world you don’t trifle with this man”.

“He wants to end the war and Zelensky felt like he needed to bait Trump in the Oval Office,” he told Fox News.

Zelensky, having departed the White House grounds, made no mention of the altercation in a short post thanking America for the visit.

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“Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you @POTUS, Congress, and the American people. Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that.”

Zelensky, who gained billions of dollars’ worth of US weaponry and moral support from the Biden administration for its fight against Russia, is facing a sharply different attitude from Trump. Trump wants to quickly wind down the three-year war, improve ties with Russia and recoup money spent to support Ukraine.

Trump has adopted a much less committed stance toward European security, a change in tone that has sent shockwaves across Europe and stoked fears in Kyiv and among its allies that it could be forced into a peace deal that favours Russia.

No security guarantees in proposed deal

An agreement negotiated in recent days – but which has not yet been signed and is now under threat – would have opened Ukraine’s vast mineral wealth to the United States but did not include explicit American security guarantees for Ukraine. Trump said the presence of Americans in business would serve as a form of guarantee.

How much any deal would be worth to the United States was not spelled out. Trump has said he expects to gain hundreds of billions of dollars. Zelensky has said he would not sign an agreement that would put his country in debt for generations.

Ukraine would be expected to contribute 50 per cent of “all revenues earned from the future monetisation of all relevant Ukrainian government-owned natural resource assets” to a reconstruction fund jointly owned and managed by the United States and Ukraine.

The agreement did not specify how any funds would be spent, or identify specific assets it might cover, though it said they would include deposits of minerals, oil and natural gas as well as infrastructure such as gas terminals and ports.

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Ukraine has rapidly expanded its defence industry production but remains heavily reliant on foreign military assistance, while also struggling to replenish manpower as it battles a much larger foe.

While Ukraine repelled Russia’s invasion from the outskirts of Kyiv and recaptured swathes of territory in 2022, Russia still controls around a fifth of Ukraine and has been taking ground since a failed Ukrainian counteroffensive in 2023. Kyiv’s troops hold a chunk of land in Russia’s western Kursk region after a 2024 incursion.

Even before the explosive meeting, Trump had engaged in a long-distance feud with Zelensky, criticising his handling of the war and calling him a “dictator”.

with Reuters

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