U.S. President Donald Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to make a deal with Russia to end the war in Ukraine or “we’re out” during a combative Oval Office meeting on Friday with peace hanging in the balance.
After the meeting, Trump wrote on Truth Social that Zelenskyy, who was in Washington to sign an economic agreement with the U.S. seen as a step toward ending the three-year war, “can come back when he is ready for peace.”
“I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace if America is involved,” he wrote. “He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office.”
To read a transcript of the meeting, click here.
Zelenskyy left the White House in his motorcade shortly after the meeting wrapped up without signing the deal with the U.S., and a joint press conference with Trump scheduled for Friday afternoon was cancelled.
During the meeting, Trump and U.S. Vice-President JD Vance loudly berated and argued with Zelenskyy over the origins of Russia’s full-scale invasion and U.S. support for Ukraine, calling him “disrespectful” for openly debating issues of the war in front of reporters and warning against trusting Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people,” Trump said. “You’re gambling with World War III, and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country that’s backed you far more than a lot of people say they should have.”
“Have you said ‘thank you’ once?” Vance asked Zelenskyy, who responded that he had thanked the U.S. for its military and humanitarian aid several times.
“You’re either going to make a deal, or we’re out,” Trump later said. “If we’re out, you’ll fight it out. I don’t think it’s going to be pretty, but you’ll fight it out. But you don’t have the cards. Once we sign that deal, you’ll be in a much better position, but you’re not acting at all thankful, and that’s not a nice thing.”
The economic agreement with the U.S. was aimed at financing the reconstruction of war-damaged Ukraine, but Zelenskyy was seeking to persuade the White House to provide some form of U.S. backing for Ukraine’s security against any future Russian aggression.
The deal referenced the importance of Ukraine’s security, but it leaves that to a separate agreement that still needs to be hammered out by the two leaders.
It was not yet clear if the agreement was still on the table after Zelenskyy left the White House early.
A White House official told Reuters that Trump was not ruling out a deal, but that it would be up to the Ukrainians to demonstrate it’s ready for a “constructive conversation” and reschedule a signing ceremony while Zelenskyy was still in the U.S.
“Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit,” Zelenskyy wrote on X after his departure. He also thanked Trump, Congress “and the American people.”
“Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that.”
The Oval Office meeting started cordially, with both Trump and Zelenskyy agreeing that the war needed to end.
Zelenskyy called Russian President Vladimir Putin a terrorist and told Trump that Ukraine and the world need “no compromises with a killer.”
“Even during the war there are rules,” he said.
But the mood later devolved after Zelenskyy pointed out Russia has broken past ceasefire agreements and pushed back on some of Trump’s comments about Ukraine and the war.
Vance called Zelenskyy “disrespectful” when the Ukrainian leader tried to explain that Trump — who has repeatedly lamented the mounting deaths on both sides of the war in seeking a peaceful end — did not intervene or express remorse for Ukrainians who died during the civil war with Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine during Trump’s first term.
That conflict, which began in 2014 after Russia invaded Crimea, preceded the 2022 invasion.
The vice-president also said Zelenskyy’s position was “wrong” and urged him to litigate disagreements at the negotiating table.
“President Trump and Vice President Vance are standing up for the American people,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X as the meeting concluded.
Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a staunch ally of both Trump and Ukraine, called the meeting “a complete and utter disaster” and claimed Trump was “shocked” by what happened.
“I don’t know if we can ever do business with Zelenskyy again,” he told reporters outside the White House.
“He either needs to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with, or he needs to change.”
Zelenskyy’s visit came after the leaders of Britain and France traveled to Washington to implore Trump to uphold support for Ukraine. Trump this week had expressed confidence in working with Zelenskyy towards peace with Russia after earlier calling the Ukrainian president a “dictator” and blamed him for the war itself.
“We must … respect those who have been fighting since the beginning,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters in Portugal when asked to comment on the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting.
The leaders of Canada, the European Union and several EU members also expressed solidarity with Ukraine after the event in social media posts, which Zelenskyy shared and thanked for their support on his account.
Ukrainian officials and diaspora groups worldwide commended Zelenskyy and criticized Trump’s behaviour.
“Trump’s treatment of Zelenskyy was one of the most disgraceful things we’ve ever seen,” the Ukrainian Canadian Congress said in a statement.
Foreign Minister Melanie Joly reaffirmed Canada’s commitment to Ukraine and support for reaching a deal with the U.S., but did not directly condemn what happened in the meeting. She did, however, say Russia was “noting the interaction that happened today.”
“We know that President Putin has no red lines,” she told reporters in Vancouver. “Our goal is to make sure that we can continue to support Ukrainians and that we can keep very strong G7 unit amidst all this unpredictability and even chaos.”
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said on Telegram that Zelenskyy had received a well-deserved “solid slap” from Trump. Other Russian officials joined in celebrating what they said was a loss for Zelenskyy and Ukraine.
Many Ukrainians fear that a hastily negotiated peace — especially one that makes too many concessions to Russian demands — would allow Moscow to rearm and consolidate its forces for a future invasion after current hostilities cease.
European and Canadian allies have also expressed alarm that Trump has struck a more friendly tone with Russia than the previous Biden administration, which sought to isolate and denigrate Putin after his invasion in 2022.
The White House on Friday said it escorted a reporter from the Russian state news agency Tass out of the Oval Office, who was not on the approved media list.
Trump and administration officials have said they want to try and return most of the land Russia has taken since the invasion back to Ukraine, and that the U.S. won’t continue negotiating with Moscow if it makes unreasonable demands.
Speaking about the rare earths agreement, Trump said the U.S. is lacking in many such minerals while Ukraine has among the best on the planet. He said U.S. interests plan to take those reserves and use them on everything from artificial intelligence operations to military weapons.
Asked about long-term security guarantee to guard against future Russian aggression, Trump said once the agreement is signed that a return to fighting was unlikely. He said the presence of U.S. workers “digging” for minerals will serve as a deterrent to Russia attacking again.
Britain and other European nations have said they are ready to provide troops to Ukraine to uphold a ceasefire agreement with Russia.
Near the end of the meeting, Trump dismissed concerns about Russia violating a future deal.
“What if anything? What if a bomb drops on your head right now?” he responded.
—With files from the Associated Press
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