It was supposed to be a moment of triumph for President Volodymyr Zelensky’s president of Ukraine, a possibility after weeks of maneuver for a meeting of the oval office to demonstrate American support in the bloodiest war of the European generations.
Instead, the meeting revealed itself in insults. Mr. Zelensky, who had remained in his country to fight against a Russian assault and who gathered a large part of the world to support Ukraine, was left to shake his head while President Trump said he trusted Russia to support a fire.
He was reproached by Mr. Trump and vice -president JD Vance as “disrespectful” for arguing that Russia represented a threat beyond Ukraine. Sometimes, a corner of Mr. Zelensky’s lip it curled up while American leaders reproached him and minimized the prospects of aid to his army, which is blocked in vicious trenches war with Russia.
Mr. Trump, who sometimes raised his voice, replied Mr. Zelensky, saying: “You don’t have the cards”.
Mr. Zelensky replied: “I’m not playing cards”.
The eliminated in the oval office arrived at a critical moment of the war, with Ukrainian who tried to keep Russia at bay in battles of attrition in the east of the country and the opening of Trump opening of the talks directly with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
Mr. Zelensky has never indicated those who called the critical national interests of Ukraine, throwing them outside the table in the table in the interviews of ceased the fire; aerial defenses to protect Ukrainian cities and power plants; and the Military Backup of the United States for a proposed and European peace maintenance force.
But it is not clear where Mr. Zelensky’s armed relationship with Mr. Trump leaves Ukrainian, who had heavily entrusted to American support in the last three years and who had attempted for weeks of broker of an agreement on mineral rights that would have satisfied the Trump administration.
What was clear, from the beginning of the diplomatic visit to its brusque final, were the signs of antipathy between Mr. Zelensky and the Trump administration.
Mr. Zelensky, who claims not to wear a dress to show solidarity with his soldiers, wore the simple military -style clothes that usually wears for official events. When he arrived at the White House, Mr. Trump said to journalists: “It’s all dressed today!”
Later, in The Oval Office, a journalist for the news of One America on the right asked Mr. Zelensky, saying: “Do you own a dress? Many Americans have problems with you who do not respect the dignity of this office. “
Mr. Zelensky, an ex -comic actor, reduced, saying that he would wear a dress after the end of the war. “Maybe something similar to yours?” He added. “Maybe something better, I don’t know.”
The clash with Mr. Trump interrupted the meeting, canceled the signature of the agreement highly propagated for the rights of Ukrainian minerals and left the Ukrainian apparently on the precipice of the loss of the support of his most powerful supporter.
In its diplomacy, Ukraine had hoped to interact with the United States in a process of ceased the fire that would progress on two tracks, with the Trump administration that spoke separately with Russia and Ukraine. The Minerals-the agreement to which Signor Zelensky’s reason was expected for visiting the aim of opening a path for the American-Ukraine branch of these interviews, while providing Signor Trump a logic for any expense relating to guaranteeing a fire.
Before leaving Kyiv, Zelensky had noticed the positions of Ukraine who wanted the Trump administration to support. The Ukrainian army, he said, would not have placed his arms if he had not ensured a ceased fire and Ukraine would have insisted on keeping his army promptly to the fight against “maximum numbers” rather than accepting the limits on his strength.
Militarily, Ukraine does not seem to be imminent risk of an important defeat, at least for the standards of past called in the past, including the advance of the Russian army on the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv, in the first days of the war. Russia’s initial attack put Mr. Zelensky’s presidential office about 12 miles from enemy troops.
Ukraine has sufficient ammunition to last until April or May without further American supplies, military analysts said. Ukraine depends on the United States for the patriots of air defense, which are the only system capable of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles, such as Kinzhal hypersonic missiles that have been shot in Kyiv.
Western assistance, even from the United States, with satellite surveillance and missile artillery has given an advantage to Ukraine. But the dependence of Ukraine for American ammunition, the Howitzers and armored vehicles are faded, since the production of Ukrainian weapons has increased and exploding the drones, even nationally, have passed all the other weapons in lethality.
In a burst of diplomacy before the meeting in Washington, Zelensky had tried to support European support. He had to participate in a summit of 18 European leaders on Sunday in London, where European aid commitments were foreseen. It was not clear if the exchange on in the oval office would have pushed European leaders to expand their support for Ukraine.
The public reproaching by the President of the United States was a remarkable pivot point for a leader who two years ago attracted applause by Republicans and Democrats at the congress.
But his style was more or less effective, even if he classified some observers. The theatrical and emotional communication of Mr. Zelensky served Ukraine well in the dramatic and first months of the war, helping to lift the spirits at home and bring help from the allies. Later, Gruntolii designed and brought a secretary to British defense to a certain point saying that it should show gratitude.
When he was asked in an interview on Friday evening with Fox News if he apologized to the president, Mr. Zelensky said: “I’m not sure he had done something bad”, but characterized the clash as “not good for both sides”.
Zelensky arrived in Washington after a long and rocky negotiation to grant half of the future revenues of the Ukrainian government from natural resources to a fund partly controlled by the United States.
Mr. Zelensky had rejected the conditions of the agreement, pushing Mr. Trump to falsely say that Ukraine had started war. Mr. Zelensky reported that Mr. Trump lived in a “disinformation” bubble.
Zelensky’s show in pushing for a better agreement pushed a little scratch to Ukraine, where some asked why he would risk cornering a mercurial leader like Mr. Trump. On Friday, Mr. Zelensky entered the meeting bringing photographs of the victims of war, clearly ready to discuss the points of Ukraine again.
Instead, on Friday’s meeting will be sure to squeeze millions of Ukrainians already exhausted at risk of moving to the front line and missile attacks.
Mr. Zelensky has long tried to travel a subtle line with Mr. Trump, who repeatedly praised Mr. Putin and who, during his first term, prompted Ukraine to help clouded his political rival, leading to his first impeachment. For months, Mr. Zelensky tried to avoid angrying the leader of a vital ally but he felt he had no choice, as on the affirmation of Mr. Trump on the beginning of the war.
The approach had won both praise and criticism from politicians within Ukraine – and brought a Bump in popularity for Mr. Zelensky, who was seen as a rejection of bullying, insults and falsehoods on a raw, personal and immediate conflict for Ukrainians.
But Mr. Zelensky’s approach clearly did not work on Friday.
During the meeting, he showed Trump’s photographs of the Ukrainian prisoners of war which, he said, had been abused in Russia, claiming that war is more than the potential profit of natural resources.
The photographs were not visible to the press members. But the Ukrainian prisoners of war are back from Russian prisons as disturbing and thin characters from bidon covered with bruises. It was a strong removal from what Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Great Britain presented to Mr. Trump a day before: an elegant invitation letter from King Charles to participate in a real banquet.
During the Mineral Agreements in Kiev, the head of the staff of Zelensky, Andriy Yermak, had insisted on a signature of the White House of the agreement, according to a person who familiar with the negotiations.
Zelensky had seen the decision to keep the meeting and his times, as a diplomatic success – showing that Mr. Trump would have met first with him, and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia Secondo. The correspondent of the Trump administration in Ukraine for the fire interviews, Keith Kellogg, had recommended against a meeting of the White House, but Ukrainian negotiators insisted on, said the person.
After the diplomatic debacle on Friday, the mineral agreement and the interviews of ceased the fire seem to be hindered.
During the exchange of the White House, the two leaders discussed a key area of dispute: if one ceased the fire should come in front of an agreement on the security guarantees. Trump said that the application for a ceased is only “2 percent” of the task of ending the war. Mr. Zelensky insisted that Mr. Putin cannot be trusted and that guarantees are needed, calling it a milestone for the future peace of Ukraine.
“We will never agree without a guarantee of security,” he said.
Eve Sampson Contributed relationships.