Vice President JD Vance, right, speaks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, as President Donald Trump listens in the Oval Office at the White House, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/ Mystyslav Chernov) 
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaks to reporters outside the West Wing of the White House, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) 
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy takes part in a plenary during the Securing our Future Summit on Ukraine and European security at Lancaster House in London, Sunday, March 2, 2025. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)
KYIV, Ukraine | Ukraine’s president has few options after last week’s astonishing Oval Office row with U.S. President Donald Trump, who berated the wartime leader. Now Ukraine’s future could depend on whether Volodymyr Zelenskyy can repair his relationship with the White House.
The heated conversation that played out live on television looms over all American support for Ukraine and could shape the country’s war against the Russian invasion. The scene will almost certainly stick with Zelenskyy for the rest of his presidency, if not his life.
American officials have said that they want an apology from Zelenskyy, who has maintained his cool in public appearances since the episode and leaned into European support while also rebuffing calls from U.S. officials to resign. He has even expressed optimism about continued U.S. support.
As European partners rally around Zelenskyy, Western officials in Kyiv acknowledge that the durability of any peace plan will depend on U.S. military backing.
Zelenskyy has said he is still ready to sign a lucrative minerals deal with Trump that could be the first step toward a ceasefire. Since Friday’s confrontation, there has been communication between Ukraine and the administration but not between the two presidents.
Meanwhile, Trump is scheduled to address Congress on Tuesday with a speech that will offer him an opportunity to outline his vision for ending the war.
“I’m sure that this situation will pass, and there are more important things ahead. And if we all continue to be constructive, then, I think, we will have a positive result,” Zelenskyy told reporters Sunday after a meeting of European leaders in London. “Positive — if my understanding here is correct — positive is when we are bringing peace for Ukraine closer, all of us.”
Signing the deal with the Trump administration for a portion of Ukraine’s natural resources would have paved the way for more agreements on the future of American military aid and the terms of an armistice with Russia. Now all of that is uncertain.
Saving the U.S.-Ukraine relationship
Oleksandr Kraiev, an analyst at the Kyiv-based Ukrainian Prism foreign policy think tank, said the first step to salvaging U.S-Ukraine relations is “to re-establish personal contacts with Trump’s people and with Trump himself,” even though “it will be hard psychologically.”
“Yes, the situation is quite dire. We see a lot of bad prognosis,” he said. “It’s not an apocalyptic scenario for us. The relations can be reestablished, not because Ukrainian diplomacy is far superior or because Zelenskyy is a great communicator, but because there is still an economic interest for Trump here in Ukraine.”
“As for saving the relationship,” Zelenskyy told reporters over the weekend: “I think our relationship (with the U.S.) will continue because it’s more than a relationship of one moment or another. We have to be open.”
Ukraine is “ready to continue the dialogue,” he said. “We want to count on new aid.”
U.S. officials have called for Zelenskyy to express gratitude for U.S. support, something the Ukrainian president has regularly done since the full-scale invasion began early in 2022.
“America is a democracy. The president is not the only power. Congress matters. Voters matter. Mass media and public opinion. We should work with them,” Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Merezhko said.
Leaning into Europe
Europe has stepped into the gap left by the deepening Ukraine-U.S. rift. But a ceasefire plan crafted by European powers will still require U.S. support to be effective.
“All is not lost. There is a chance that a deal could still be done, but it’s much less likely than it was,” said Ben Barry, a military expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
A French-British plan to deploy European contingents in Ukraine “should include the presence of the United States of America in one way or another” Zelenskyy said, adding that the U.S. could contribute air, ground or intelligence support.
Boosting support to Ukraine in the event that the U.S. withdraws aid would come at a great cost to the continent, Barry said.
Europe could provide arms and ammunition directly to Ukraine and could put the European defense and industry on a war footing, he said. “That would cost Europe a lot of money. Whether it’s got the political resolution to do that, we would see.”
Calls for Zelenskyy to resign
Zelenskyy has rebuffed resignation calls from some U.S. officials, saying only the Ukrainian people can decide who leads them.
Amid the criticism, there are no signs in Ukraine of public discussion about Zelenskyy stepping down.
“If Zelensky had behaved differently or if there had been an interpreter, of course, it would have been a slightly different story,” said Oleksandr Khara, director of the Center for Defense Strategies.
But David Novak, a 23-year-old Ukrainian cook, said what most Ukrainians were thinking. He said he was “shocked” by the Oval Office exchange and said he understood that Zelenskyy “is doing his best, and that he is holding on.”
In Ukraine, the White House blowup sparked yet another surge of unity, as many in the country interpreted the remarks from Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance as a personal affront while Zelenskyy expressed an opinion widely shared among Ukrainians — that Russia cannot be trusted to keep ceasefire promises.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted a selection of photos on Instagram of Ukrainians wearing military fatigues, blood-soaked medical scrubs and firefighting gear — all symbols of the war — with the slogan “Ukrainians have their suits.” The campaign is in response to a question posed to Zelenskyy in the Oval Office about why he was not wearing a suit.
In response to U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham’s call that he resign, Zelenskyy told reporters: “I can give (Lindsay Graham) citizenship in Ukraine and he will become a citizen of our country. And then his voice will start to gain weight, and I will hear him as a citizen of Ukraine on the topic of who must be the president.”
Zelinski was not the instigator in the oval office. Trumps lap dof Vance started barking like a chiuaua at Zelinski giving Trump a chance to flap his trap, going so far as protecting Putin’s feelings about tge Russian hoax and Huntets laptop and liberal media. What a farting Traitor! Zelinski wanted to be at the table in pease talks and was upset about being called a Dictator and starting the war. I’m proud of Zelinsky not kowtowing to Trump and Kissing the ring of Trump. He showed he has more balls than any Republican polatitisian ever had!!
Tr7mp has destroyed all The status and freedoms we represented in the world, shitting on our Allies and chumming up to the biggest threat in the world for the last 80 years!
Russia has been the enemy of the world for over 80 years, Putin about as many. The most hated and feared war mongers and inhuman attrocities known to man.
I fear Trump is going to bethe next monster. And he’s tak8ng the people of the USA with him.
Sad. I had to vote for Trump because of the immigration issue. In so many ways he is wrong and endangering us all on his foreign policy. Let us start with just the moral issue. A dictator invaded another country and his troops raped and murdered. He has sent thousands of his own people to their deaths as well regularly bombarding women and children in Ukraine. He has been plotting against the US for a long time and has sponsored others to murder our troops. He reversed the friendly environment we had created after the end of the Cold War. He is simply an evil dictator who can never be trusted. Besides breaking so many agreements in the past, he told us right before he invaded Ukraine that he was not going to do it. So, morally and in terms of our defense, we should not be trusting Putin at all.
The arguments coming out of the Republicans are ridiculous. I am an independent. Let us look at the idea that a minerals deal will put boots on the ground and so we can trust that Putin won’t do anything. First, what company is going to put their people in a war zone. Zelensky simply wants some security guarantee before that happens. If Trump with his great negotiating skill cannot get Putin to agree to stop attacking while we mine, then what? Why won’t Trump agree to give some type of security guarantee before we put our civilian workers in danger? By the way, during Trump’s first term, he bragged about his relationship with the head of North Korea and how he was going to negotiate with them on nuclear weapons. That went nowhere.
Trumps claim that the war would never have started if he had been in office is pretty empty. Trump is saying that he wants to save all of these lives and the war must end. So, without any backbone, he is saying that Putin would have been afraid of him? So, if Putin had attacked while Trump was President, would Trump simply have threatened to negotiate? He clearly doesn’t have the backbone to fight. Winston Churchill would have turned green listening to Trump whine about how Ukraine has to negotiate because they are in a bad spot. England did not give up against Hitler and we did not shy away from fighting a dictator.
Let us expand on Trump’s argument that too many people are being killed and it is too expensive. Has he said to Netanyahu that too many people are being killed and we can’t afford to give you more money? Has he said to Netanyahu that he will have to agree to a peace that he (Trump) will negotiate with Hamas and Iran? Has he said that Netanyahu would have to give up some of the land that Hamas ran over on October 7th? So, where is his great sudden humanitarian zeal? We know that he wants to win the Nobel Peace prize. He made it clear that he thinks he deserves it. So, is he sacrificing a nation to fulfill his ambitions?
He may force a country fighting for their existence to surrender much of their lands to a tyrant by withholding any aid. It won’t be a noble thing and history will put him alongside Neville Chamberlain. I fought in Vietnam. Nixon made agreements with the communists that they quickly violated as soon as it was to their advantage. The politicians choose to live fantasies to fulfill their goals. Our politicians have wasted huge amounts of money and many American lives in poorly advised wars. They were wars supporting corrupt governments with very little support from their populations. In this case we have a democratic country with its citizens fighting their hearts out against a brutal invasion. This is far different from our efforts in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iran. I hear the argument that Ukraine is corrupt and so we should not support them. The people who are being bombed have little to do with that. Imagine that we were invaded and the rest of the free world just said that our leaders are corrupt so we just have to endure the slaughter. I think we can say that we have a great deal of corruption.
The damage that Trump is doing to historical alliances is daunting. Yes, Europe needs to step up more. He has accomplished that. He has also shown that we cannot be trusted and that we are no longer leaders of the free world. “America first” should not mean to hell with everyone else. In our history, when we have sided with petty dictators for our own advantage, we have created hatred with their populations. Aligning ourselves with an evil dictator can say nothing good to the world about America.
I find Trump completely dishonest in his comments about not saying anything bad about Putin because he has to negotiate with him. Trump badmouthed Zelensky publicly before Zelensky ever came to the Whitehouse. When asked about it, Trump said he didn’t recall his very public comments about Zelensky. After calling Zelensky a dictator, Trump doesn’t remember that. Who can we trust here?
This whole petty incident in the Whitehouse was, in my mind shameful. To quibble over whether a man fighting for his country’s survival offended you by disagreeing with your assessment of the situation is to be arrogant and uncaring about the real topics that need to be addressed. To attack the same man about his clothing is to me the height of arrogance. Let us ask about humility here. Would Jesus have been insulted with a man’s garb who was fighting to save his people from slaughter. The whole affair exuded American arrogance and disregard for others.
Let us hope that some reason intervenes before Trump makes the whole world, except the dictators, hate us. Let us hope that not too many Ukrainian children die before Trump’s ego is satisfied.
Mr Black, I have to thank you for this comment. Everything you have said is true, and Americans have to realise the destruction of our credabiluty and trust we have built in the last 80 plus years, and is insulting our allies and defending and cosying up Dictators and known commiters of war crimes and many attrosities.
Your comparison of zelinsky vs Netanyahu was straight to the point of Trumps reasoning (or lack of).
Thanks again for a well thought out commentary.
Here’s the thing: One month into his inauguration, Trump has shifted the US policy on the Ukraine war to be more open to communication with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Last month, officials from Washington and Moscow met for peace negotiations in Saudi Arabia with Ukraine and Europe not invited to join them.
When Zelenskyy and his European allies voiced discontent about this, Trump accused the Ukrainian president of starting the war, triggering a tense exchange of words between himself and Zelenskyy.
Trump is a bully. He’s ‘forcing’ Zelenskyy between a rock (Trump) and a hard place (Putin)…..This is appalling and disgusting. And trump has a 48% approval rating? Let’s see now what happens when the higher Tariff prices kick in.