Many Ukrainians looked to Europe for more support after disastrous White House talks between their president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Donald Trump, while the Kremlin said Washington’s new foreign policy “largely coincides with our vision” of the world.
Mr Zelenskiy joined European leaders in London for emergency talks on Sunday, two days after he was forced to leave the White House early and without signing a prepared agreement following heated exchanges with Mr Trump and US vice-president JD Vance in front of journalists.
“It looked bad for Ukraine, but they were very rude and aggressive towards Zelenskiy,” said Dmytro, a computer technician walking in central Kyiv, who declined to give his surname as he also builds drones for the military.
“Trump said that Ukraine and Russia are the same in this war, without distinguishing between the invader and the country being invaded.
Oscars 2025: Full list of winners as wild screwball comedy Anora takes five Academy Awards
Real question is why Trump wants to help Putin reverse the Soviet Union’s collapse
South Dublin homeowner faces imprisonment or €5,000 fine after retrofitting home under Government grant
Is the answer to Ireland’s housing crisis more apartments?
“After three years of full-scale war, all the deaths and injuries and damage we have suffered, our president could not just sit there and take it and not challenge that – he had to stand up for himself and for Ukraine and for the truth of what is happening here.”
Most Ukrainian politicians refrained from public criticism of Zelenskiy and said the country needed to preserve its unity in the face of daily Russian missile and drone strikes and heavy pressure from Moscow’s invasion force at the eastern front line.
“Many people expected Poroshenko to criticise Zelenskiy now … This is not what Ukraine needs. The country needs unity,” said former president Petro Poroshenko, whom Mr Zelenskiy beat in 2019 elections just months after swapping a career in comedy for politics.
Mr Poroshenko urged Ukrainians to work to ensure their military had sufficient supplies, and said he hoped talks between European leaders in London on Sunday and in Brussels on Thursday would help boost Ukraine’s position in several ways.
“First: the unity of Europe. Europe will give us money, weapons and investments in the defence industry. And it will help us bring our American partners back to the negotiating table. This is very important,” he said.
Some Ukrainians said Mr Zelenskiy should not have allowed himself to become visibly frustrated and angry in the White House, and should have used an interpreter in exchanges with Mr Trump and Mr Vance because his English is far from fluent.
Others thought the White House had intentionally goaded Mr Zelenskiy, noting how Mr Trump immediately made a joke of the fact that he was dressed in his usual wartime outfit of fatigue-style clothes, which he wears to show solidarity with Ukraine’s troops. Later, in the Oval Office, a journalist from an overtly pro-Trump news outlet said Mr Zelenskiy’s attire was disrespectful and – as Mr Vance laughed – asked him: “Do you even own a suit?”
Ukrainians also thought it was deeply unfair for Mr Trump and Mr Vance to suggest that Mr Zelenskiy and his compatriots were ungrateful, because he publicly thanks foreign nations for their support every day, and they were shocked to hear Mr Trump say he did not favour Ukraine over Russia and was only focused on US interests.
“After the Oval Office meeting, [Trump] claimed that Ukraine doesn’t want peace. Nothing could be further from the truth. No one wants peace more than Ukrainians,” Ukrainian deputy Inna Sovsun said.
“But we’re not being offered peace – we’re being pushed into a ceasefire with no guarantees that [Russia] won’t attack again. What kind of ‘peace’ is that?”
The White House says it wants to broker a fair settlement between Moscow and Kyiv, but has only made public demands of the latter by telling it that a peace deal will not bring Ukraine the return of all occupied territory, Nato membership or a commitment of US peacekeepers – terms that all meet core Kremlin demands.
On Sunday Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “The new [US] administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. This largely coincides with our vision.”
He also praised the US for recently backing a United Nations resolution that did not name Russia as the aggressor in the war in Ukraine and for voting – alongside autocracies including Russia, Belarus and North Korea – against a rival Ukrainian-backed resolution. The latter passed thanks to support from most western democracies.
“This was unimaginable before,” Mr Peskov said, hailing “attempts being made now to start a dialogue, to improve all relations”.
Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov picked out UK prime minister Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron for particular criticism, as they have played a leading role in discussions on potentially sending European peacekeepers to Ukraine – something Moscow said was unacceptable.
“President Macron is running around with some ideas, as is Starmer. They say they are preparing so many thousands of peacekeepers and will provide them with air cover. This is also impertinent,” he said.
“This plan to introduce peacekeepers into Ukraine is continuing to incite Kyiv into a war against us,” he said, accusing Europeans of planning to “prop up [Zelenskiy] with their bayonets in the form of peacekeeping units”.
