3 hours Ago By Sam Corbishley
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during an interview with Fox News Chief Political Anchor Bret Baier after his heated Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump (Picture: Getty)Volodymyr Zelensky refused to be pressured into apologising over his clash with Donald Trump and JD Vance at the White House, saying ‘I’m not sure we did something bad’.The Ukrainian President had been invited to Washington DC to sign a minerals agreement, which would see continued US military support in exchange for developing Ukraine’s natural resources.But the summit quickly descended into chaos, with Vice President Vance and then Trump himself turning on Zelensky in what many observers called an ‘ambush’ in front of the world’s media.
Zelensky was later kicked out of the White House, with Trump taking to his Truth Social page to declare Ukraine’s wartime leader ‘can come back when he is ready for peace’.Ukraine’s president later told Fox News he was ‘always very thankful’ to the US.Asked whether he should apologised for the heated scenes, he said ‘no’, adding: ‘I respect the president, and I respect the American people.
‘I’m not sure that we did something bad.’{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Metro.
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classList.add('metro-video-player--related-videos-loaded');});He went on: ‘It’s not about [being] mad. ‘[When you hear] president, vice president or somebody or senators — doesn’t matter, big politicians — when they, for example, say that Ukraine is almost destroyed, that our soldiers run away, that they are not a heroes, that Ukraine lost millions of civilians, that his president is dictator.
‘The reaction is that, where is our friendship between Ukraine and United States?’In an unprecedented series of exchanges in the Oval Office, the US president, his number two and Zelensky all spoke over one another in raised voices.‘You’re gambling with millions of people ..
. You’re gambling with World War Three,’ Mr Trump said.Zelensky warned the US would ‘feel it in the future’ if it did not continue to support Ukraine.
‘Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. We’re trying to solve a problem,’ Trump hit back.Vance meanwhile accused the Ukrainian leader of being ‘disrespectful’, and both he and the US president claimed Zelensky had not been thankful enough for US military aid.
US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office at the White House (Picture: Getty)The exchange will have left European leaders horrified, coming just days after French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer sought to smooth over relations between Ukraine and the US.Britain’s media condemned Trump in the wake of the fallout.The Sun labels Zelensky a ‘global hero’ who ‘led his wronged country’s brave defence against a tyrant’s war machine’.
‘His ambush by Donald Trump and his vice-president as the world watched was a shocking spectacle,’ the newspaper writes.Sentiments are echoed by the Daily Mirror, which also describes the interaction as an ‘ambush’ and Trump as a ‘bully’.‘One is leading his country’s fight for survival,’ the editorial says.
‘The other prefers to showboat in front of TV cameras as if he is on The Apprentice.’The Independent claims Vance was in ‘performative propaganda mode’, labelling the conflict ‘one of the most shameful episodes in the history of American diplomacy’.And the Daily Telegraph writes the White House leadership was in the wrong ‘factually, geopolitically and morally’, labelling Trump’s outburst ‘unprecedented’.
‘The Western alliance appears to be on the brink,’ the newspaper says, later adding: ‘It was a chilling scene which will have worried everyone in Britain and Europe concerned for the security of their continent.’The iWeekend rules Ukraine’s president ‘maintained his dignity’ even if he ‘showed too little diplomacy when it might have benefited his people’.‘The provocations came from Trump and JD Vance, whose crass attempt to embarrass Zelensky will delight their supporters but dismay America’s allies,” it read.
‘Putin must be laughing his head off.’Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
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