Volodymyr Zelensky on White House ‘fight’ with Donald Trump: ‘Not good for both sides’
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday said he wanted his US counterpart Donald Trump to be more supportive of Ukraine following the clash between the two leaders at the White House.
“Of course, the relationship between the wartime allies can be fixed,” Zelensky told Fox News.
The Ukrainian president added does not want to lose the United States as a partner — while saying he wants Trump to be “really more on our side.”
According to an AP report, Zelensky said that Ukraine won’t enter peace talks with Russia “until it has security guarantees against another offensive.”
He also added Friday’s contentious spat with President Donald Trump was “not good for both sides”.
The Ukrainian president said that Trump, who insists Russian President Vladimir Putin “is ready to end the three-year grinding war”, needs to understand that Ukraine can’t change attitudes toward Russia on a dime.
Trump-Zelensky meeting
The meeting between Trump and Zelensky at the White House witnessed the two leaders clash before the world’s media over the war with Russia.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance laid into Zelensky, saying he showed “disrespect”, driving relations with Kyiv’s most important wartime ally to a new low. A US official told Reuters that the Ukrainian leader was told to leave.
An agreement between Ukraine and the United States to jointly develop Ukraine’s rich natural resources, which Kyiv and its European allies had hoped would usher in better relations, was left unsigned.
European leaders leapt to Zelensky’s defense. German chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz said, “We must never confuse aggressor and victim in this terrible war.”
An official in the Ukrainian delegation in Washington told Reuters that Zelensky spoke by telephone with French President Emmanuel Macron, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, and EU Council President Antonio Costa.
Trump has engaged in a long-distance feud with Zelensky in recent weeks, criticising his handling of the war, calling him a “dictator” and urging him to agree to the minerals deal. He subsequently distanced himself from the “dictator” remark.