US Vice President J.D. Vance described Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as "disrespectful" for discussing US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office in front of the US media.
The Associated Press reported on Friday that Vance asked Zelensky: "Did you say thank you once?", and that Trump criticized Zelensky, saying: "You should be more grateful," adding that Zelensky "is playing the World War III card."
On his part, Zelensky told Trump: "President Vladimir Putin's peace promises cannot be trusted, and he has a history of breaking promises," to which Trump responded by saying: "Putin has not broken any agreements with him."
An unusually loud row broke out in the Oval Office between President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, who had hoped to receive continued US support for security during his visit to Washington.
In a loud voice, Trump and Zelensky, along with Vice President J.D. Vance exchanged concerns over the nature of U.S. support and whether Zelensky had shown enough gratitude to the United States for its support for Ukraine. “You’re not in a good place right now,” Trump said, raising his voice as he berated Zelensky.
Vance, on his part, called Zelensky “disrespectful” for trying to bring the conflict to the public. During the meeting, Trump argued that taking a tough stance against Russian President Vladimir Putin would be counterproductive to reaching a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, and defended himself against concerns that he was too aligned with the Russian president. “Well, if I’m not getting along with both of them, you’re not going to get any deal,”
Trump said, addressing Zelensky. “You want me to say terrible things about Putin and then say, ‘Hey, Vladimir, how do we work out a deal?’” "It doesn't work like that. I'm not aligned with Putin. I'm not aligned with anybody. I'm aligned with the United States of America. For the good of the world, I'm aligned with the world. I want to end this."
"You see the hatred that he has for Putin, and that's a very difficult thing for me to do with that kind of hatred. I'm aligned with the world. I'm aligned with Europe. I want to see if we can end this," Trump said, standing next to Zelensky in the Oval Office.
Trump made clear that a deal cannot be achieved by being tough on Putin, adding: "You want to see me be tough? I can be very tough, but you're not going to get a deal that way."
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