Ukrainians have rallied behind Volodymyr Zelenskyy after his mauling on Friday in the White House, and have accused Donald Trump and the US vice-president, JD Vance, of deliberately and cynically “starting a brawl”.
There was widespread support for Ukraine’s president at home and dismay at his car-crash encounter in the Oval Office. There was also praise for Zelenskyy’s insistence that a peace deal without security guarantees was meaningless, and that Russia could not be trusted.
The bitter fallout continued on Saturday. There were reports that Trump – who claimed Zelenskyy had “disrespected” him and was “not ready for peace” – was planning to cut off all military supplies to Ukraine.
Senior Ukrainian officials said that without meaningful security pledges any ceasefire deal with Moscow would not last.
“Another [Vladimir] Putin trap failed. Respect to the president for the courage to call things by their proper names, and to defend our people’s honour,” the deputy prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, said.
Worshipers lighting candles at the St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Observer
The governor of Kharkiv oblast, Oleh Syniehubov, said Zelenskyy had defended the national interest, in the face of “intense pressure” from the US to agree a Russia-friendly deal that verged on capitulation. “We only need a just peace with security guarantees,” he said.
A few commentators have blamed Zelenskyy for not handling Trump better, and have suggested that his famed public relations skills deserted him. Most Ukrainian observers, however, said the country’s leader walked into a well prepared ambush, designed to humiliate and belittle him.
The Ukrainian journalist and blogger Ilia Ponomorenko said even if Zelenskyy had sat in silence for 40 minutes Trump would have “found a reason to get offended” and started “a brawl anyway”. “You simply can’t win with people who don’t actually want a standard, successful meeting,” he told his 1.1 million followers on X.
He added: “We can talk endlessly about Ze’s missteps and diplomatic setbacks, but the reality is – under any circumstances – he was always going to be called a beggar, a war gambler pushing the world toward world war three, someone who doesn’t want peace, isn’t thankful enough.
“And, most importantly, someone standing between Trump and his sweet little deal with Putin – who has promised him oceans of gold in exchange for Ukraine.”
Zelenskyy says public argument with Trump was ‘not good’ – video
Striking a positive note, he continued: “Ukraine is the coolest country in the world right now – again.”
Not everyone in Ukraine agreed. One pensioner, Valentina, speaking in Kyiv’s independence square – next to a memorial to fallen Ukrainian soldiers – said Zelenskyy had made a big mistake.
“I think he should have stayed silent and just listened to Trump. Trump wants to stop this war,” she said. “There is a lot of grief in our country. Every day people are getting killed. I was disappointed. It was night in Kyiv when the meeting happened. I just cried because the war will now continue.”
A teenager, Andrii Semeniuta, said the country was split “50-50” in its view of Ukraine’s president. Asked what he thought of the Oval Office exchanges, he said: “I can’t judge. It’s a difficult moment. I don’t think Ukraine will get its territory back, unfortunately.”
Andrii Semeniuta, 19, (red jacket) at the memorial to fallen defenders of Ukraine in Maidan the day after Zelensky met Trump in Washington Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Observer
There was a widespread feeling that Trump had already decided to cut assistance to Ukraine, well before Friday’s ill-fated meeting. Last week the US president described Zelenskyy as an unpopular “dictator without elections” and alleged he was “doing a terrible job”.
On Monday, US diplomats sided with Russia and North Korea and voted against a European-drafted resolution that condemned Russian aggression and supported Ukraine’s territorial integrity. The US tabled its own rival motion, which offered no criticism of Moscow.
Ukrainian social media channels were filled with pro-Zelenskyy comments after a Trump-supporting reporter in the Oval Office asked Zelenskyy on Friday why he was not wearing a suit, and suggested this was a sign of disrespect. Zelenskyy replied that he would wear one after Russia’s war ended.
“This man is fighting for his country. A sovereign nation got invaded. His people are dying. This motherfucker talks about him wearing a suit,” a US veteran said, in a video widely shared on Ukrainian Telegram news outlets. The veteran continued: “I hate this fucking country. I’ve never in my life felt like I do now.”
The mother of Volodymyr killed at 28 in June 2023 at the memorial to fallen defenders of Ukraine in Maidan. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Observer
By way of response to the White House meeting, prominent Ukrainian reporters shared videos and photographs of Russian atrocities. One pointed out that her mother had been internally displaced twice – forced to leave the eastern city of Donetsk in 2014, after Russia staged a covert takeover, and again in 2022 from the Kyiv garden suburb of Bucha.
Russian troops occupied Bucha for a month, killing, torturing and raping hundreds of civilians. The journalist Kristina Berdynskykh said Russia had committed “the worst crimes in Ukraine”. She posted a picture she took on 5 April 2022, after Ukrainian forces entered Bucha. It showed five charred corpses lying in a suburban street.
“This is what Russia is doing in Ukraine every day,” she said.
Since the US began talks with Russia in Saudi Arabia last month – over a possible peace settlement in Ukraine – the Kremlin has stepped up its nightly bombardments. Early on Saturday, nine Russian strike drones hit Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv. Seven people were injured and several private houses were damaged, local officials said.
