Trump and Zelensky clash in Oval Office shouting match

AFP | Washington
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US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky clashed in an extraordinary shouting match in the Oval Office yesterday, leaving efforts to end the war with Russia hanging in the balance.

“You’re either going to make a deal or we’re out,” a furious Trump told Zelensky, as a meeting that was meant to ease tensions over the sudden US outreach to Russia ended up inflaming them.

“You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War Three, and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to this country,” Trump added.

Zelensky was at the White House to sign a deal on sharing Ukraine’s mineral riches and discuss a peace deal with Russia, despite the US president recently branding his Ukrainian counterpart a dictator.

The meeting came after a week-long diplomatic dance that has also seen the leaders of France and Britain come to the White House to persuade Trump not to abandon Kyiv.

But tempers frayed after Vice President JD Vance said that “diplomacy” was needed to end the war. Zelensky asked “what kind of diplomacy” and Vance then accused him of being “disrespectful” in the president’s office.

‘Tough deal’
Trump then backed up his vice president as the leaders argued about whether the US had failed to stop Putin after the 2014 annexation of Crimea, and the situation became increasingly tense.

“You’re not acting at all thankful,” said Trump.

“It’s going to be a very hard thing to do business like this,” said Trump. “It’s going to be a tough deal to make because the attitudes have to change.”

Zelensky fought his corner with Trump in a calmer voice, accusing them of “speaking loudly.”

Trump had alarmed US allies and upended Washington’s longstanding Ukraine policy two weeks ago when he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and started talks on ending the three-year-old war -- without Kyiv’s involvement.

Trump told reporters yesterday he had since spoken on “numerous occasions” to Putin.

The US leader has demanded a deal granting Washington preferential access to Ukraine’s rare-earth and other natural resources as the price for any continued backing -- even though he has refused to commit to giving Kyiv security guarantees as part of a truce with Russia.

“We’ll be dig, dig, digging” for Ukraine’s resources, Trump said on Thursday ahead of the meeting -- echoing his presidential election campaign slogan about how the United States would “drill, baby, drill” for oil.

The clash came despite Trump recently softening his tone on Zelensky in recent days, after berating him last week as a “dictator without elections,” blaming Ukraine for Russia’s February 2022 invasion, and echoing a series of Kremlin talking points about the war.

“I have a lot of respect for him,” Trump said of Zelensky on Thursday at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “We’re going to get along really well.”