On February 28, 2025, United States’ President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss and close a possible minerals deals. Taking place in the Oval Office of the US White House, the entire meeting was televised live and included the precence of various political figures including US Vice President Vance and other members of the Presidential Cabinet.
Beginning in 2014, but advancing majorly on February 2022, the Russo-Ukrainian war began to attract world-wide attention. Russia, lead by Vladimir Putin, has executed extensive measures in trying to invade Ukraine. Zelenskyy, in an effort to help protect his country, has turned to many allies, including the United States for military protection. This anticipated meeting was meant to close a mining deal, which would help establish security in Ukrainian fronts against Russian forces. Ukraine was set to sell a piece of mining property to the US, which would deem the idea as one of United States’ properties. Russian forces would have to stop advancing inward toward Ukraine if they hoped not to start problems with the United States directly. Since the advancement of the war, the United States have been one of Ukraine’s most prominent allies, prompting the meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump.
The meeting, which started with cordial small talk between both parties quickly turned sour when a possible diplomacy between Ukraine and Russia was mentioned by Vice President Vance. “[the] path to peace and the path to prosperity is maybe engaging in diplomacy” stated the Vice President. Rejecting the possibility of peace between the two countries, Zelenskyy quickly mentioned the mass destruction caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion three years ago, along with a failed cease-fire in 2019. The visible disagreement of how to handle the issue became prominent, causing the meeting to suddenly feel extremely tense. Vance then proceeded to call the Ukrainian president ‘disrespectful’.
After disputing with Zelenskyy over Ukraine’s military struggles, the Ukrainian President stated “During the war, everybody has problems, even you. But you have a nice ocean and don’t feel [it] now, but you will feel it in the future.” Trump and his staff were visibly insulted by this declaration, taking it as a type of threat against the United States and disagreeing with Zelenskyy’s perceptions of the scale of the war at hand. The disagreement, which had been solely between the US Vice President and the Ukrainian President, has now prompted US President Trump to intervene, with him repeating his leading line “”Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. You’re in no position to dictate that,” as Zelenskyy tried to further explain his point. “You don’t have the cards right now, you’re gambling with millions of lives,” stated Trump, talking over the Zelenskyy.
Later on in the conversation, Zelenskyy said “From the very beginning of the war, we have been alone and we are thankful”, which sparked increased anger from Trump, who has been quoted as blaming the war for causing American taxes to be so high. “You haven’t been alone. You haven’t been alone. We gave you – through this stupid president – $350 billion,” responded Trump, referencing former President Biden. The Vice President then proceeded to call the Ukrainian President ‘ungrateful’ and accused him of campaigning towards the Democratic party during the last American election. “Please, you think that if you will speak very loudly about the war-“ said Zelensky to Vance before being interrupted by President Trump. “He’s not speaking loudly,” stated Trump, defending the Vice President. “Your country’s in big trouble. You’re not winning, you’re not winning this. You have a damn good chance of coming out OK because of us.”
The meeting resulted in a failed attempt towards a conclusion of the ongoing mining proceedings between America and Ukraine. Many of Trump’s opponents have criticized the meeting as being ‘disrespectful’ on the US’s side, calling the President and his staff ‘bullies’ and ‘mean’. From their perspective, the Ukrainian President has been actively trying to save his country, and accusing him of anything otherwise is in poor taste. On the contrary, Trump supporters praised Trump for putting his foot down in front of the Ukrainian President. They believe that the US should not get more involved in the war than they already are, and that by pushing for peace, this could avoid that. They believe that the president is being cautious and pushing for one of America’s famed principles: freedom and peace for all.
