The meeting in Washington on Friday between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump and Vice-President JD Vance ended abruptly after a heated debate in front of the press where the American leaders insulted Zelensky and attacked him verbally.
Video recordings from the strange meeting show how Trump and Vance are insulting the Ukrainian guest and accusing him of being ungrateful to the US and disrespectful to the American president. In particular Vance attacked Zelensky, claiming that it was “disrespectful” by him to come to Oval Office and “attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of (your) country”.
Vance, who has not visited Ukraine, provoked Zelensky by claiming that Ukraine is forcing conscripts to the front line because of manpower problems. Zelensky kept his calm and replied that during war everyone has problems, including the US. “But you have a nice ocean (between you and Russia) and don’t feel it now. But you’ll feel it in the future.”
After that the “discussion” exploded, with Trump telling Zelensky that he is “in no position to dictate what we are going to feel”. It did not help that Zelensky tried to explain that he meant that the US would also be “influenced”. Trump accused him of not “having the cards” or “playing with bad cards” and repeated that he was “disrespectful” to the US.
Vance’s behavior did not come as a surprise. Ukraine and the EU were shocked when listening to his speech at the recent Munich Security Conference. Vance questioned the shared democratic values of the transatlantic relationship and did not mention Russia’s aggression as a threat to Europe. Instead, he lambasted the EU for countering disinformation and election manipulation.
There was no “chemistry” between Zelensky and Trump already during the latter’s first administration and every word he says might upset Trump, who did not listen to him. During the meeting, Zelensky was alone against Trump and Vance, as EU has been sidelined by the US on a peace settlement with Russia. At one moment, Trump interrupted Zelensky and even said that he was not allowed to talk.
After the failed meeting, Trump wrote on social media that “I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations (?). I don’t want advantage, I want PEACE. He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace.”
EU leaders must have felt that they had abandoned Zelensky at the meeting. European Commission Ursula von der Leyen tweeted Friday evening: “Your dignity honours the bravery of the Ukrainian people. Be strong, be brave, be fearless. You are never alone, dear President. We will continue working with you for a just and lasting peace.”
High Representative Kaja Kallas, whose own meeting earlier in the week with US foreign minister had been cancelled, did not mind her words and tweeted: “Ukraine is Europe! We stand by Ukraine. We will step up our support to Ukraine so that they can continue to fight back the aggressor. Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge.”
“We stand behind Ukraine and the Ukrainian people in their historic fight to defend themselves against an unprovoked Russian aggression,” tweeted Bart De Wever, Belgium’s Prime Minister. “Their fight is our fight. United we are strong.”
Zelensky had arrived in Washington in good faith to sign an agreement on critical raw minerals which had been imposed on him by the new American administration as a condition for continued support. The full text of the agreement, labelled “Bilateral agreement establishing terms and conditions for a reconstruction investment fund’, was published on Wednesday by The Kyiv Independent.
At the start of the talks on the agreement, the US demanded to be paid exaggerated amounts of revenues from Ukraine’s mineral wealth in return for its military and economic support under the Biden administration to Ukraine in its defence against Russia’s war aggression.
Eventually, the US eased its conditions and the sides agreed on their intent to establish a Reconstruction Investment Fund, “with the aim of achieving lasting peace in Ukraine”. Ukraine would contribute to the Fund “50 percent of all revenues earned from the future monetization of all relevant Ukrainian Government-owned natural resource assets.”
The US refused to offer any security guarantees for Ukraine and considers American investments in Ukraine as a kind of security against Russia violating a future peace settlement. Instead, the agreement says that the US “supports Ukraine’s efforts to obtain security guarantees needed to establish lasting peace”.
Such security guarantees will have to be provided by the EU by deploying a peacekeeping force in Ukraine and accelerating its accession process to join the EU. Currently all EU besides two Member States support this. Asked by The Brussels Times if the emerging deal was fair to Ukraine, a Commission spokesperson declined to comment and did not say if the Commission had been consulted on it.
M. Apelblat
The Brussels Times
