Trump scolds Zelensky on live TV, accuses him of playing with World War III

WashingtonThe long faces at the reception anticipated a cold and distant meeting, but not that the negotiations would end up blowing up. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky entered the White House on Friday to sign an agreement so that the United States could exploit minerals in exchange for maintaining its military support and left booed and threatened. Never before had an ally (or a rival) invited to the Oval Office received such treatment. Donald Trump said that the Ukrainian president was not "ready" for peace and sent a Republican senator to ask him to resign. Zelensky left the White House without giving the press conference scheduled at the end of the meeting.

The meeting went out of control after half an hour of conversation in front of journalists. Forgetting all protocol, Trump and Vice President Vance lashed out at Zelensky for not showing himself sufficiently grateful for the military support given to him by the United States in the face of the Russian invasion. Trump has threatened him: he is not winning the war, he depends on foreign aid and is not in a position to dictate the terms of the negotiation. He has been booed and, pointing fingers at, told that if he does not accept an agreement they will abandon him. Zelensky has left the West Wing alone and then Trump has said on his social networks that he is "not ready for peace" and accused him of "disrespecting" the United States: "he can return [to the White House] when he is ready for peace."

A live diplomatic disaster and open contempt for the president of an invaded country who was willing to sell its natural resources in exchange for maintaining aid: "Either you accept the agreement or we withdraw, and if we withdraw you will have to continue fighting, and I don't think that will be pretty."

The Ukrainian president has left a table at which he has never been offered a seat or wanted one. Trump himself made it explicit last week, saying that his presence was not necessary, while the US delegation decided the future of the country at war with Russia. Zelensky responded to Trump with another post on X: "Thank you, United States, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you, President, to the Congress and to the American people. Ukraine needs a fair and lasting peace, and we are working precisely to achieve it."

Zelensky's departure from the White House is the final blow to the deteriorating relations between Washington and Kiev, leaving Europe in a much more complicated position in the midst of the conflict. On Sunday, Zelensky is expected to participate in the meeting that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called for in London. Meanwhile, in Moscow, they are smiling at the images of a powerless Zelensky in hostile territory while Trump was spurred on by the aggressiveness of his own people, who played with the advantage of language and being on their turf. Kirill Dmitriev, Putin's advisor, described the moment experienced in the White House as "historic" – in X.

"Without us, you have no cards"

Minutes before the breakup, Trump had told Zelensky in the Oval Office that he should be "grateful" and accused him of playing with World War III. "You're not winning this [the war]," Trump told him in a louder tone. "Without us you have no cards," he snapped. It all started when Vice President JD Vance lashed out at the Ukrainian and told him he was being disrespectful. The Ukrainian ambassador, Oksana Markarova, who was also in the Oval Office, covered her face with her hands. At the end of the conversation, Trump made fun of it and said: "We've seen enough. It will make good television content."

What Zelensky has wanted from the beginning is to obtain security guarantees from Washington to commit to a ceasefire, but Trump has already made it clear to him that this "does not concern me now." On the table, the United States has already accepted de facto Moscow's demands: that Ukraine should not be allowed to return to its pre-2014 borders, that it should quit NATO and that the country should go to elections. These are all demands that Moscow has been making for some time.

Seventeen days have passed since US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent showed up in Kiev with a draft of the agreement on Ukrainian rare earths; seventeen days in which Zelensky and Europe have tried to get Washington to commit to guaranteeing Ukraine's security, but the text still does not spell this out.

Neither the visits from Macron, Last Monday, nor from Keir Starmer, this Thursday, they have achieved a compromise beyond vagueness. And without safeguards, Zelensky and his European allies know that a lasting peace is not possible, because since 2014 Russia has not stopped attacking Ukraine and swallowing up pieces of its territory.

Zelensky has not been able to defend himself in a two-on-one, in a language he does not master, and Trump seemed to be in a televised electoral debate, lecturing him, pointing his finger at him and dictating the future of his country. The Ukrainian president has left through the back door, although he cannot be reproached for having remained silent or for having soaped up the Republican. He has left the White House empty-handed, having suffered his own diplomatic Chernobyl. And Europe now sees more clearly that it needs to speed up the turnaround to put in place mechanisms to guarantee its own security.