Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky suffer setbacks after Oval Office blowup

The display of disunity in the White House meeting risks emboldening Russia’s Vladimir Putin in negotiations to end the war. The Ukrainian leader later arrived in London for a European summit.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky leaves the White House after his heated meeting with President Donald Trump on Friday US time. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

The complex task of negotiating an agreement to halt the Ukraine-Russia war now faces another daunting obstacle – the fractured relationship between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

A meeting intended to be a display of unity descended into an on-camera clash, with Mr Zelensky arguing that Moscow couldn’t be trusted to make peace, and Mr Trump, along with Vice President JD Vance, indicting Mr Zelensky’s handling of the war and failure to thank them for US aid.

For Mr Zelensky, the blowup ruined a critical opportunity to secure stronger backing for Ukraine’s long-term defence. For Mr Trump, it was a damaging setback to his goal of forging a peace agreement between Kyiv and Moscow.

Volodymyr Zelensky speaks to JD Vance as they meet with Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House. Picture: AFP

But both leaders also have a stake in salvaging their relationship – or at least papering over their differences.

Ukraine wants a deal that returns much of the country’s seized territory and removes Russian troops from the battlefield. Mr Zelensky also wants security guarantees that deter Russia from launching a renewed attack on his country, which even he says would be most effective if they came from the US.

Mr Trump, for his part, needs Kyiv to agree to halt fighting as part of a peace agreement, though he has also said he would soon meet Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of his goal of re-establishing relations with Moscow.

Donald Trump greets Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House before their meeting. Picture: Ukrainian Presidential Press-Service / AFP

Mr Trump has insisted for weeks that Putin is genuinely interested in peace, alarming Ukraine and trans-Atlantic partners, who feared the White House was preparing to negotiate a peace deal closer to Moscow’s terms than their own.

By delivering a public rebuke to Mr Zelensky, Mr Trump and Mr Vance may have been seeking to soften up the Ukrainian leader ahead of negotiations, analysts said.

But the display of disunity between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky, even before the planned peace talks are under way, also risked emboldening Putin, who has voiced support for halting the fighting but on unacceptable terms for Ukraine and US allies in Europe.

“No one is enjoying this more than Putin,” said Alina Polyakova, president and CEO of the Centre for European Policy Analysis. “I would expect that the Russians move quickly now, while the emotions are fresh, to cut a deal for Ukraine’s capitulation.”

How much damage the aborted White House meeting does to plans to forge a common negotiating strategy between Washington and its European allies remains to be seen.

AFP reported Mr Zelensky would meet British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in London on Saturday on the eve of a summit gathering 12 European leaders in the British capital, Sir Keir’s office said.

“The Prime Minister and President Zelensky will be meeting in Downing Street this afternoon [London time],” a spokeswoman said, as British media showed a plane bearing the Ukrainian flag touching down in an airport north of London.

Rachel Rizzo, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, argued that Mr Zelensky had damaged his relationship with the American President, maybe permanently.

“Unless something drastically changes over the coming days, Zelensky just solidified the fact that not only is he going to be sidelined in terms of potential conversations with Trump and Putin, he’ll be totally cut out,” Ms Rizzo said.

Mr Trump has said privately on multiple occasions to donors at fundraisers that Ukraine cannot win the war and that it wasn’t in the American interest to continue supporting Kyiv, former campaign officials said.

Mr Trump’s supporters said Mr Zelensky needed to take steps to fix relations: “He either needs to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with, or he needs to change,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.

In recent days, Mr Trump had appeared to be moving in Mr Zelensky’s direction, after the leaders of Poland, France and Britain visited Washington this week to plead Ukraine’s case.

Mr Trump had signalled openness to supporting European peacekeepers in Ukraine, a step that Kyiv and European governments considered crucial to ensuring Moscow didn’t renew the war, as it has done after previous ceasefires.

Workers operate machinery at an open-pit titanium mine in the Zhytomyr region, on Friday. Mr Zelensky and Mr Trump had been due to sign a minerals agreement. Picture: Roman Pilipey / AFP

He had also backed away from criticism of Mr Zelensky after calling him a “dictator” earlier in February.

The mineral deal that the two leaders were planning to sign on Friday US time was characterised as a win-win agreement by both sides – allowing Mr Trump to say he had negotiated return payment on the roughly $US120 billion ($193bn) in US aid to Kyiv and giving Mr Zelensky a commitment of continued American backing.

European officials have insisted in recent days that they were succeeding in moving Mr Trump toward a common strategy against Putin. But Jeremy Shapiro, director of the US program at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said they may have made the mistake of assuming Mr Trump agreed with them about how to settle the Ukraine conflict.

“He’ll promise you the world. But 48 hours later, he’ll betray you without a thought. He might not even know he is betraying you,” Mr Shapiro said.

A Trump adviser said the President has vented about Mr Zelensky for some time and doesn’t believe he is grateful to the US, adding that Mr Trump for now plans to wait and see what the Ukrainian leader does.

As he sparred with Mr Zelensky on Friday, Mr Trump outlined the choice the Ukrainian leader faces with typical bluntness: “You are either going to make a deal, or we’re out. And if we’re out, you’ll fight it out. I don’t think it is going to be pretty, but you’ll fight it out.”

At one point, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, held her head in her hands.

Ukrainian Ambassador understands that Zelensky is a complete and total disaster… pic.twitter.com/2a6u7gNqfI

— Dan Scavino (@Scavino47) February 28, 2025

After the 10-minute exchange, the Ukrainians went into a separate room before a planned lunch.

Mr Trump, huddling with his cabinet members and advisers, said it was clear there wasn’t any point in continuing the visit. Mr Trump then asked national security adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to inform the Ukrainian delegation it was time to leave the White House.

Mr Zelensky was conciliatory afterward, posting on X: “Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you @POTUS, Congress, and the American people.”

We are very grateful to the United States for all the support. I’m thankful to President Trump, Congress for their bipartisan support, and American people. Ukrainians have always appreciated this support, especially during these three years of full-scale invasion. pic.twitter.com/Z9FlWjF101

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 1, 2025

In a Fox News interview later on Friday, Mr Zelensky said he wanted peace, which required security guarantees to keep Russia at bay.

Asked if Mr Trump was too close to Putin, he replied: “I want him to be more on our side.”

The setup for a White House press conference that was abruptly cancelled after the Oval Office meeting on Friday.

By Saturday, Mr Zelensky was posting on X: “We are very grateful to the United States for all the support. I’m thankful to President Trump, Congress for their bipartisan support, and American people. Ukrainians have always appreciated this support, especially during these three years of full-scale invasion.”

Mr Trump didn’t rule out another meeting with Mr Zelensky, but didn’t back off his sharp criticism of the Ukrainian leader either. He “isn’t ready for Peace if America is involved,” Mr Trump said in a social-media post, saying the Ukrainian President “disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office”.

Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he prepares to depart the White House on Friday for his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. Mr Trump said visiting Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky had ‘overplayed his hand’. Picture: AFP

Mr Zelensky wanted to return to the White House on Friday after the disastrous meeting in the Oval Office but was rebuffed, Mr Trump later told reporters.

Asked what Mr Zelensky has to do, Mr Trump said, “He’s got to say, ‘I want to make peace.’ ”

The Wall Street Journal