Zelensky leaves White House after heated argument with Trump

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance scolded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday in a tense Oval Office exchange, telling him to be more ‘thankful’ and warning, ‘make a deal with Russia or we’re out.’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy remained defiant in the hours after the tense public confrontation with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office, saying he does not owe the president an apology.

Earlier Friday, Trump cut the meeting short with Zelensky, said the Ukrainian leader is “not ready” for peace with Russia in an extraordinary meltdown in the Oval Office that threw question marks over chances for a truce. Zelensky was meant to be making a full White House visit to sign a US-Ukrainian deal for joint exploitation of Ukraine’s mineral resources, as part of a post-war recovery in a US-brokered peace deal.

Trump, Zelenskiy did not sign minerals deal, White House says

Instead, an ugly clash blew up almost immediately in the Oval Office where Trump and Vice President JD Vance shouted at Zelensky, accusing him of not being thankful for US help in the three-year war against Russian invasion. Trump berated Zelensky, telling him to be more “thankful” and that without US assistance Ukraine would have been conquered by Russia. “You’re either going to make a deal or we’re out,” Trump added. “And if we’re out, you’ll fight it out and I don’t think it’s going to be pretty.”

Zelensky left in his motorcade shortly after, without holding a planned joint press conference. The resources deal was left unsigned, the White House said. Trump took to his Truth Social platform to castigate Zelensky saying “he disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office.” Zelensky is “not ready for Peace,” Trump wrote. “He can come back when he is ready for Peace.”

The extraordinary meltdown came after Trump said Ukraine will have to make “compromises” in a truce with Russia, which has occupied swaths of Ukraine, destroying entire cities and towns along the way. “You can’t do any deals without compromises. So certainly he’s going to have to make some compromises, but hopefully they won’t be as big as some people think,” Trump said.

WORLD LEADERS REACT

World leaders reacted after Trump and Zelensky’s fallout in the Oval Office. European Union chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa assured Zelensky that “You are never alone.”

“Be strong, be brave, be fearless,” wrote the European commission and council presidents in a joint statement on social media, telling Zelensky: “We will continue working with you for a just and lasting peace.”

The bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas questioned America’s leadership of the West. “Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge,” she wrote on social media.

French President Emmanuel Macron said that Russia is the “aggressor” in the Ukraine war.

“There is an aggressor which is Russia. There is an aggressed people which is Ukraine,” Macron told journalists, adding: “We were all right to help Ukraine and sanction Russia three years ago and to continue to do so.” Later, Macron’s office said he’d spoken by phone with Zelensky.

Germany’s likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz assured his support to Zelensky in a posting on X. “We must never confuse the aggressor and the victim in this terrible war,” Merz said. The outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz also voiced support for Ukraine, as did Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock who added that Kyiv’s “quest for peace & security is ours.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, one of the closest partners of both Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, thanked Trump for standing “bravely for peace.”

“Strong men make peace, weak men make war,” Orban wrote in a post on X.

“Dutch support for Ukraine remains undiminished. Especially now,” Prime Minister Dick Schoof said on X, adding “we want lasting peace and an end to the war of aggression that Russia has started.”

Staunch Kyiv ally Poland moved to reassure Ukrainians after the dispute. “Dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on X in a post addressed to Zelensky. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said his country would stand by war-torn Ukraine after the row.

“Ukraine, Spain stands with you,” Sanchez, a staunch backer of Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion who pledged one billion euros of aid in a visit to Kyiv this week, wrote on X.

“A summit without delay is needed between the United States, European states and their allies to talk frankly about how we intend to tackle today’s major challenges, starting with Ukraine, which together we have defended in recent years,” Meloni said in a statement.