Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Donald Trump’s meeting at the White House on February 28 descended into an extraordinary ten-minute shouting match in front of the world’s media.
Volodymyr Zelensky was told to leave the White House before the pair could even take the stage for a scheduled news conference.
The minerals deal, which had been trailed and praised by both sides this week, was left unsigned. “Come back when you’re ready for peace,” Donald Trump wrote on social media shortly before Zelensky’s car pulled away hours ahead of schedule.
The angry exchanges, which saw President Zelensky clash with President Trump and his Vice-President JD Vance, featured several major flashpoints. Here are four of the most fiery – and the politics and feeling that lies behind them.
While there was half an hour of cordial talks and formalities at the start, tensions began to boil over in the Oval Office when JD Vance said the “path to peace and the path to prosperity is maybe engaging in diplomacy”.
Volodymyr Zelensky interjected, referencing Russia’s aggression in the years before its full-scale invasion three years ago including a failed ceasefire in 2019.
“Nobody stopped him,” he said of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“What kind of diplomacy, JD, are you talking about? What do you mean?” he said.
The exchange then became visibly tense, with JD Vance replying: “the kind that will end the destruction of your country.”
JD Vance then accused Volodymyr Zelensky of being disrespectful and “litigating” the situation in front of the American media.
After Vance challenged the Ukrainian president over problems he’s had with the military and conscription, Zelensky replied: “During the war, everybody has problems, even you. But you have a nice ocean and don’t feel [it] now, but you will feel it in the future.”
That comment rankled President Trump and drew him into the clash that up until this point had been limited to Zelensky and the vice-president.
Here was the Ukrainian leader suggesting President Trump had failed to grasp the moral hazard of dealing with the war’s aggressor.
“You don’t have the cards right now,” he told him.
“You’re gambling with millions of lives.”
At one point later in the conversation, Zelensky said: “From the very beginning of the war, we have been alone and we are thankful.”
This angered Donald Trump, who has repeatedly framed the war as a drain on American taxpayers.
“You haven’t been alone,” he said.
“You haven’t been alone. We gave you – through this stupid president – $350bn,” President Trump said, a reference to Joe Biden.
JD Vance then asked whether Zelensky had thanked the US during the meeting and accused him of campaigning “for the opposition” – the Democrats – during the US election last year.
The comment was a reference to a visit Volodymyr Zelensky made to a munitions factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania – Joe Biden’s hometown – just weeks before Americans headed to the polls in the November election.
Republicans were outraged at the visit, accusing Zelensky of turning the tour into a partisan campaign event on Kamala Harris’s behalf in a battleground state.
Donald Trump and JD Vance reprimanded Volodymyr Zelensky, appearing most angered by what they perceived as his “attitude”.
