U.S. President Donald Trump urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to accept Russian demands or face destruction during a tense White House meeting on Friday.
The encounter reportedly erupted into shouting and cursing as the two leaders clashed over Ukraine’s war strategy.
According to sources familiar with the meeting, Trump repeatedly echoed the talking points of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Highlights
- Trump urged Zelenskyy to accept Russian demands or face Ukraine's destruction during a tense White House meeting.
- The meeting descended into shouting and cursing, with Trump dismissing Ukrainian frontline maps as irrelevant, according to a report.
- Zelenskyy firmly rejected surrendering the Donbas region, emphasizing Ukraine’s unchanged stance on independence.
- Trump highlighted the Hamas-Israel ceasefire as a model and declined Zelenskyy's request for Tomahawk missiles.
- Following talks with Putin, Trump expressed optimism about peace, planning meetings to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
A White House meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy apparently erupted into shouting and cursing
Image credits: Win McNamee/Getty Images
He apparently told Zelenskyy that Russia would “destroy” Ukraine if the country did not agree to surrender the Donbas region.
Sources told The Financial Times that the discussion quickly descended into a “shouting match” with “cursing all the time.”
At one point, Trump reportedly tossed aside maps of the Ukrainian front line, saying he was “sick” of seeing them.
“This red line, I don’t even know where this is. I’ve never been there,” Trump said, according to FT.
The meeting followed a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, which Trump highlighted as a potential model for ending the war in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy arrived at the White House seeking long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to strengthen Ukraine’s capabilities, a request that Trump declined.
Image credits: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Sources said the scene was similar to that of Zelenskyy’s Oval Office visit in February, where Vice President JD Vance criticized him for not thanking the U.S. enough for their help in the war against Russia.
Zelenskyy was also accused of being “disrespectful” for not wearing a suit and tie.
Zelenskyy rejected the notion of surrendering territory, emphasizing that Ukraine’s stance remains unchanged. He told reporters in comments released Monday that Trump wants a quick resolution to the conflict.
“Putin, however, wants the total occupation of Ukraine,” he told reporters.
Zelenskyy also said that Putin had demanded that Ukraine “withdraw from the Donbas—not the entire east, but specifically the Donbas, that is, completely from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.”
Zelenskyy said there is “no clear position” on what Russia was actually willing to give up in those regions.
He also added that he had “made it clear” to Trump “that Ukraine’s stance in this context remains unchanged.”
For Ukraine, giving up parts of Donbas under Ukrainian control would mean conceding to Moscow land that it has only partially occupied for over a decade and failed to capture even since Putin launched the 2022 invasion.
“To give [the Donbas] to Russia without a fight is unacceptable for Ukrainian society, and Putin knows that,” Oleksandr Merezhko, chair of the Ukrainian Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told The Financial Times.
FT reported that “Zelenskyy was very negative” after the meeting. European leaders were also “not optimistic but pragmatic with planning next steps.”
Trump later suggested on Fox News that he remained confident about ending the war, saying that Putin was “going to take something, he’s won certain property.”
Trump asked Zelenskyy to withdraw from the Donbas region
Image credits: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
The encounter took place shortly after Trump reportedly spoke with Putin by phone and seemingly welcomed him back into the good graces of the U.S.
Trump wrote on Truth Social about how Putin congratulated him on the “Great Accomplishment of Peace in the Middle East,” and suggested that his “Success in the Middle East will help in our negotiation in attaining an end to the War with Russia/Ukraine.”
He also said that “High Level Advisors” from the U.S. and Russia would meet next week at an undisclosed location.
He said he would also then meet with Putin in Budapest “to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end.”