By Steve Holland, Nandita Bose and Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump ended in disaster on Friday, after the two leaders traded verbal blows before the world’s media at the White House over the war with Russia.
The visit by Zelenskiy was designed to help Ukraine convince the United States not to side with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
Instead the Ukrainian leader disagreed sharply with Trump and Vice President JD Vance over the conflict, underlining how the change of administration in Washington has undermined Kyiv’s attempts to maintain Western support for its war effort.
Vance stressed the need for diplomacy to resolve the biggest conflict in Europe since World War Two, while Zelenskiy countered that Putin could not be trusted in any negotiations.
Trump quickly took to Truth Social to accuse Zelenskiy of disrespecting the United States.
“I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace if America is involved,” he wrote, using an alternative spelling of the leader’s name. “He can come back when he is ready for Peace.”
Zelenskiy left the White House early following the confrontation, without signing a much-vaunted deal between Ukraine and the United States over the joint development of natural resources.
The clash also undermines recent efforts by European leaders to convince Trump to provide security guarantees for Ukraine even if he has refused to deploy U.S. soldiers on Ukrainian soil.
Such guarantees are seen as crucial to deter Russia from future aggression.
“People are dying, you’re running low on soldiers,” Trump told Zelenskiy as they engaged in a remarkably blunt argument before reporters in the Oval Office.
Trump threatened to withdraw U.S. support from Ukraine.
“You’re either going to make a deal, or we’re out, and if we’re out, you’ll fight it out. I don’t think it’s going to be pretty,” Trump told Zelenskiy.
“You don’t have the cards. Once we sign that deal, you’re in a much better position. But you’re not acting at all thankful, and that’s not a nice thing. I’ll be honest. That’s not a nice thing.”
Zelenskiy openly challenged Trump over his softer approach toward Putin, urging him to “make no compromises with a killer.”
Trump stressed that Putin wants to make a deal.
“You are gambling with World War Three,” Trump told Zelenskiy at one point, urging him to be more thankful.
Vance interjected that it was disrespectful of Zelenskiy to come to the Oval Office to litigate his position, a point Trump agreed with.
“You didn’t say thank you,” Vance said. Zelenskiy, raising his voice, responded: “I said a lot of times thank you to American people.”
Zelenskiy, who gained billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. 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.
“I hope I’m going to be remembered as a peacemaker,” Trump said.
Earlier, Trump told Zelenskiy that his soldiers have been unbelievably brave and that the United States wants to see an end to the fighting and the money put to “different kinds of use like rebuilding.”
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 DEAL
The agreement negotiated in recent days would open Ukraine’s vast mineral wealth to the United States but does not include explicit American security guarantees for Ukraine, a disappointment for Kyiv. Trump says the presence of Americans in business would serve as a form of guarantee.
How much the deal would be worth to the United States is not spelled out. Trump has said he expects to gain hundreds of billions of dollars. Zelenskiy has said he would not sign an agreement that would put his country in debt for generations.
Ukraine would contribute 50% of “all revenues earned from the future monetization 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 does not specify how the funds would be spent, or identify specific assets it covers, though it says they would include deposits of minerals, oil and natural gas as well as infrastructure such as gas terminals and ports.
The Washington talks were previously seen as a diplomatic boost for Zelenskiy, who has repeatedly spoken of the importance of meeting Trump in person before the U.S. president holds talks with Putin.
Kyiv had hoped the agreement would spur Trump to back Ukraine’s war effort, and potentially even win support from Republicans in Congress for a new round of aid.
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 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.
Trump has engaged in a long-distance feud with Zelenskiy in recent weeks, criticizing his handling of the war, calling him a “dictator” and urging him to agree to the minerals deal.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Nandita Bose; Additional reporting by Tom Balmforth, Simon Lewis and Jeff Mason; Editing by Humeyra Pamuk, Colleen Jenkins, Gerry Doyle, Peter Graff and Rod Nickel)
