Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting with United States President Donald Trump ended in disaster on Friday, February 28, 2025, after the two leaders clashed in an extraordinary exchange before the world’s media at the White House over the war with Russia.
Zelenskyy had seen the meeting in the Oval Office as an opportunity to convince the United States not to side with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
Instead, Trump and U.S. Vice President JD Vance laid into Zelenskyy, saying he showed disrespect, driving relations with Ukraine’s most important wartime ally to a new low.
The Ukrainian leader was told to leave, a U.S. official said.
An agreement between Ukraine and the United States to jointly develop Ukraine’s rich natural resources, which Kyiv and its European allies had hoped would usher in better relations, was left unsigned and in limbo.
European leaders leapt to Zelenskyy’s defense. German chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz said: “We must never confuse aggressor and victim in this terrible war.”
Zelenskyy spoke by telephone with French President Emmanuel Macron, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, and EU Council President Antonio Costa, an official in the Ukrainian delegation in Washington told Reuters.
Britain is due to host a meeting of Europe’s leaders and Zelenskyy on Sunday to discuss a security backstop to any peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
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Trump has lurched toward Russia since taking over as president, shocking traditional allies in Europe and beyond and leaving Ukraine increasingly vulnerable. Friday’s outburst was the most public display of that shift.
The already-tense meeting blew up when Vance stressed the need for diplomacy to resolve the biggest conflict in Europe since World War Two.
Zelenskyy, his arms folded, countered that Putin could not be trusted and noted that Vance had never visited Ukraine.
Zelenskyy openly challenged Trump over his softer approach toward Putin, urging him to “make no compromises with a killer”.
Trump, whose team said he and Vance were “standing up for Americans”, quickly took to Truth Social after the meeting to accuse Zelenskyy of disrespecting the United States.
He wrote: “I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace if America is involved.
“He can come back when he is ready for Peace.”
Trump later told reporters as he left the White House for a weekend at his Florida home that Zelenskyy needs to realize he is losing the war.
“What he’s got to say is, ‘I want to make peace.’ He doesn’t have to stand there and say ‘Putin this, Putin that,’ all negative things. He’s got to say, ‘I want to make peace.’ I don’t want to fight a war anymore,” Trump said.
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 slowly 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.
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