Zelensky, in search of a diplomatic victory with Trump, leaves with a debacle

Instead, the meeting was triggered in insults.

Zelensky, who had stayed in his country to fight a Russian attack and that summoned a large part of the world to support Ukraine, staring his heads when the president Donald Trump He said he trusted that Russia would keep the fire.

Trump and the vice president JD Vance They criticized him for being “disrespectful” for arguing that Russia represented a threat beyond Ukraine.

At times, a commissure of Zelensky’s lips curved when US leaders rebuked and subtracted importance to the prospects for helping his army, which is engaged in a fierce war of trenches with Russia.

Trump, who sometimes raised his voice, rebuked Zelensky and said:

“You don’t have the cards.”

“I’m not playing cards.”

The scolding in the Oval office came at a critical moment of the war, with Ukraine struggling to keep Russia at bay in wear battles in the east of the country and the Trump administration starting high -fire conversations directly with the Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Zelensky at no time turned away from what he has called the critical national interests of Ukraine, exposing them as a place at the Alto El Fuego negotiating table; Air defenses to protect Ukrainian cities and energy plants; and American military support for a proposed peace maintenance force, led by Europe.

But it was not clear where Zelensky’s curd with Trump to Ukraine, which had depended to a large extent on the support of the US for the past three years and that had tried for weeks negotiating an agreement on mining rights that satisfied the Trump administration.

What was clear, from the beginning of the diplomatic visit to its final abrupt, were the antipathy signals between Zelensky and the Trump administration.

Zelensky, who says he does not wear a suit to show solidarity with his soldiers, wore the simple military -style clothes that he usually wears in official acts.

When he arrived at the White House, Trump told reporters:

“Today is very elegant!”

Later, in the Oval office, a right -wing journalist One America News He asked Zelensky about it and said:

“Do you have a suit? Many Americans have problems with not respecting the dignity of this position. ”

Zelensky, a former comic actor, replied saying that he would wear a suit after the war ended.

“Maybe something like yours?” He added. “Maybe something better, I don’t know.”

The confrontation with Trump interrupted the meeting, canceled the signing of the very publicized agreement for the Ukrainian mineral rights and left Ukraine apparently to the edge of losing the support of His most powerful sponsor.

In his diplomacy, Ukraine hoped to establish a process of high fire with the United States that would advance on two ways, in which the Trump administration would speak separately with Russia and Ukraine.

The agreement on the minerals-whose signature was expected to be the reason for the visit of Zelensky-was aimed at opening a path for the American-Ukrainian branch of these conversations, while providing Trump for a justification for any expense related to the achievement of a high fire.

Before leaving kyiv, Ukraine, Zelensky had indicated the positions of Ukraine that wanted the Trump administration to support.

The Ukrainian army said, would not deposit the weapons Unless he had guarantees that the fire would remain high, and Ukraine would insist on maintaining his army in preparation for combat in “maximum numbers” instead of accepting limits to forces.

From the military point of view, Ukraine does not seem to run imminent risk of an important defeat, at least according to the standards of previous risk situations, including the advance of the Russian army on the outskirts of the capital, kyiv, in the first days of the war.

Russia’s initial attack placed Zelensky’s presidential office about 20 kilometers from enemy troops.

Ukraine has sufficient ammunition to last until April or May without additional supplies from the United States, military analysts have said.

Ukraine depends on the United States for Patriot Air Defense missiles, which are the only system capable of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles, such as missiles Hypersonic Kinzhal They have shot at kyiv.

Western assistance, including that of the United States, with satellite surveillance and rocket artillery has given Ukraine an advantage.

But Ukraine dependence on ammunition, obuses and American armored vehicles has vanished, since Ukraine weapons production has increased and explosive drones, also manufactured in the country, have surpassed all other weapons in lethality.

In a wave of diplomacy before the meeting in Washington, Zelensky had tried to prop up European support.

He planned to attend a summit of 18 European leaders On Sunday in London, where European aid promises were expected.

It was not clear if the heated exchange in the Oval office would promote European leaders to Expand your support To Ukraine.

The public reprimand of the US president was a notable turning point for a leader who two years ago received republican and Democratic foot applauses in Congress.

But his style was more or less effective, even if he irritated some observers.

Zelenskyy’s theatrical and emotional communication was useful for Ukraine in the dramatic first months of the war, helping to lift the mood at home and attract the help of the allies.

Later, he caused complaints and took a British Secretary of Defense to say that he should show gratitude.

When asked in an interview on Friday night with Fox News if he owed an apology to the president, Zelensky said:

“I am not sure that we have done something wrong,” but he did describe the confrontation as “not good for both parties.”

Zelenskyy arrived in Washington after a long and complicated negotiation to grant half of the future use of the Ukrainian government from natural resources to a controlled fund in part by the United States.

Zelensky had rejected the terms of the agreement, which led Trump to falsely say that Ukraine had begun the war.

Zelensky replied that Trump lived in a bubble of “disinformation”.

Zelensky’s show when pressing for a better agreement caused some scratches in Ukraine, where some asked why he would risk antagonizing a volatile leader like Trump.

Zelensky arrived at the meeting on Friday with photographs of victims of war, clearly willing to discuss the points of Ukraine again.

Instead, Friday’s encounter will surely make millions of Ukrainians already exhausted nervous who run the risk of changing the front lines and suffering from missile attacks.

Zelensky has tried for a long time keep a very fine line With Trump, who has repeatedly praised Putin and who, during his first term, pressed Ukraine to help stain his political rival, which led to his first impeachment.

For months, Zelensky has tried to avoid angry at the leader of a vital ally, but has remained firm when he felt he had no other option, as in Trump’s statement about the beginning of the war.

The approach had received praise and criticisms from politicians within Ukraine, and gave a boost to the popularity of Zelenskyy, who was seen as someone who faced intimidation, insults and falsehoods about a conflict that is raw, personal and immediate for the Ukraine.

But Zelensky’s approach clearly did not work on Friday.

At the meeting, he showed Trump photographs of Ukrainian prisoners of war who, he said, had been mistreated in Russia, which made it clear that the war is Something more than the potential benefit of natural resources.

The photographs were not visible to the members of the press.

But Ukrainian prisoners of war have returned from Russian prisons as disturbing figures, thin as a stick and covered with bruises.

It was a radical change with respect to what the British prime minister, Keir Starmerhe introduced Trump a day before:

an elegant letter of invitation from King Carlos to attend a real banquet.

During the conversations about the mining agreement in kyiv, the head of the cabinet of Zelensky, Andriy Yermakhe had pressed for the White House to sign the agreement, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.

Zelensky had seen the meeting as a diplomatic success, demonstrating that Trump would meet him first and with Putin later.

The envoy of the Trump Administration to Ukraine for high the fire conversations, Keith Kellogghe had discouraged a meeting at the White House, but Ukrainian negotiators insisted, said the person.

After Friday’s diplomatic debacle, both the agreement on minerals and conversations on the high fire seem to be stagnant.

During the exchange in the White House, the two leaders discussed a key dispute area:

If a high fire should come before an agreement on security guarantees.

Trump said that the application of a high fire is just the “2%” of the task of ending war.

Zelensky has insisted that You can’t trust Putin and that guarantees are needed, describing them as an cornerstone for the future peace of Ukraine.

“We will never reach an agreement without a security guarantee,” he said.