UKRAINIAN President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s meeting with Donald Trump ended in disaster on Friday, after the two leaders clashed in an extraordinary exchange before the world’s media at the White House over the war with Russia.
Zelenskiy 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 US President Trump and Vice President JD Vance laid into Zelenskiy, saying he showed disrespect, driving relations with Kyiv’s most important wartime ally to a new low.
The Ukrainian leader was told to leave, a US 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 leaped to Zelenskiy’s defense.
Zelenskiy 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 Zelenskiy on Sunday to discuss a security backstop to any peace agreement between Moscow and Kyiv.
(Reuters)
