WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky clashed in an extraordinary shouting match in the Oval Office Friday, leaving efforts to end the war with Russia hanging in the balance.
“You’re either going to make a deal or we’re out,” a furious Trump told Zelensky, as a meeting that was meant to ease tensions over the sudden US outreach to Russia ended up inflaming them.
“You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War Three, and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to this country,” Trump added.
Zelensky was at the White House to sign a deal on sharing Ukraine’s mineral riches and discuss a peace deal with Russia, despite the US president recently branding his Ukrainian counterpart a dictator.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump to sign minerals deal at White House
The meeting came after a week-long diplomatic dance that has also seen the leaders of France and Britain come to the White House to persuade Trump not to abandon Kyiv.
But tempers frayed after Vice President JD Vance said that “diplomacy” was needed to end the war. Zelensky asked “what kind of diplomacy” and Vance then accused him of being “disrespectful” in the president’s office.
‘Tough deal’
Trump then backed up his vice president as the leaders argued about whether the US had failed to stop Putin after the 2014 annexation of Crimea, and the situation became increasingly tense.
“You’re not acting at all thankful,” said Trump.
“It’s going to be a very hard thing to do business like this,” said Trump. “It’s going to be a tough deal to make because the attitudes have to change.”
Zelensky fought his corner with Trump in a calmer voice, accusing them of “speaking loudly.”
Trump had alarmed US allies and upended Washington’s longstanding Ukraine policy two weeks ago when he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and started talks on ending the three-year-old war – without Kyiv’s involvement.
Trump told reporters on Friday he had since spoken on “numerous occasions” to Putin.
Donald Trump dodges plea from Britain’s Starmer for Ukraine security guarantee
The US leader has demanded a deal granting Washington preferential access to Ukraine’s rare-earth and other natural resources as the price for any continued backing – even though he has refused to commit to giving Kyiv security guarantees as part of a truce with Russia.
“We’ll be dig, dig, digging” for Ukraine’s resources, Trump said on Thursday ahead of the meeting – echoing his presidential election campaign slogan about how the United States would “drill, baby, drill” for oil.
‘Dictator without elections’
The clash came despite Trump recently softening his tone on Zelensky in recent days, after berating him last week as a “dictator without elections”, blaming Ukraine for Russia’s February 2022 invasion and echoing a series of Kremlin talking points about the war.
“I have a lot of respect for him,” Trump said of Zelensky on Thursday at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “We’re going to get along really well.”
Trump, a billionaire real estate tycoon, insists the minerals deal is necessary for Washington to recoup the billions of dollars it has given Ukraine in military and other aid.
Zelensky said ahead of his arrival in Washington that US and Ukrainian officials would determine the nature of security guarantees for Ukraine and the exact sums of money at stake in the accord, he said.
But Trump – who said this week he trusts Putin to “keep his word” on any ceasefire and has repeatedly expressed admiration for the authoritarian Russian leader in the past – has refused to commit on security.
Britain and France have both offered peacekeepers in the event of a deal to end the Ukraine war but say there must be a US “backstop” – including American intelligence and possibly air power.
Putin and Trump said after their February 12 phone call that they had agreed to meet personally – but they have not finalized any meeting yet.
But as tensions between Moscow and Washington eased, Russia’s assault on Ukraine continued.
Russian infantry were on Friday storming the Ukrainian border from the Russian region of Kursk, near areas of the region that were seized last summer by Ukrainian forces, Kyiv said Friday.
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