Trump-Zelensky meet breaks down

Tension marred the meeting of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his American counterpart Donald Trump at the Oval Office in Washington on Friday with the two leaders ending their talks without signing a minerals deal intended to pay back United States’ massive military aid to Kyiv in its war against Russia.

During the meeting, Trump told Zelensky that Ukraine would have to make compromises in a truce with Russia, which has occupied and destroyed swathes of Ukraine.

Zelensky in return showed Trump pictures of war atrocities and vowed there could be “no compromises” while Russia was occupying Ukrainian territory.

From there, the atmosphere turned tense as

Trump openly berated Zelensky for not being “thankful” to US aid and later accused the Ukrainian leader of “not being ready for peace” and having “disrespected” the US in the “cherished Oval Office.”

“You don’t have the cards right now,” Trump said. “You’re either going to make a ceasefire deal or we’re out, and if we’re out, you’ll fight it out and I don’t think it’s going to be pretty.”

Zelensky departed shortly after, without signing the minerals deal.

Trump posted on social media that “he (Zelensky) can come back when he is ready for peace.”

US media reported that Zelensky had been told to leave by senior Trump officials.

The US president later told journalists that Zelensky was “overplaying his hand” and should agree to end fighting “immediately.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for Zelensky to “apologize for wasting our time for a meeting that was going to end the way it did.”

Zelensky refused to apologize, telling Fox News, “I’m not sure that we did something bad.” He did, however, say he wished the exchange had not taken place in front of reporters.

The Kremlin was delighted as former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev called Zelensky an “insolent pig” who had received “a proper slap down in the Oval Office.”