Emotional Scandal in the White House

On February 28, Ukrainian President Zelensky arrived in the US to sign the agreement on the joint development of Ukraine's rich natural resources. An altercation broke out before the world's media during Zelensky-Trump's press statements in the Oval Office of the White House.

Details of the scandal.

Mr. Trump tried to force the Ukrainian president to accept the ceasefire with Russia and sign the minerals agreement, while the latter tried to explain that Russia could not be trusted and demanded security guarantees for Ukraine. The disagreement quickly turned emotional. Vice president Vance, who was present, added fuel to the fire by suggesting that Mr. Zelensky accept a Mr. Trump’s diplomatic solution to the war.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance barely let Mr. Zelensky speak, accused him of disrespect and ingratitude towards the US which invested $350 billion in Ukraine during the war, reminded that Ukraine would have lost the war in 2 weeks without American help and now it cannot recruit soldiers for the army, while Mr. Zelensky is «gambling with World War Three.» Ukraine, according to Mr. Trump, has big problems and «… you don't have the cards right now.» Mr. Vance even reminded to Mr. Zelensky that he was campaigning “for others” (I.C. - Democrats) in Pennsylvania in October 2024.

Mr. Zelensky responded briefly (in his non-native English!) that he respected America and was very grateful to it. He reminded that the war had been going on since 2014 and diplomacy did not stop it yet, and that he wanted a ceasefire, but with security guarantees. He did this emotionally in response to the emotional accusations of Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance, the conflict escalated and at some point Mr. Trump said: “You're either going to make a deal, or we're out, and if we're out, you'll fight it out.”

The Ukrainian delegation was asked to leave the White House. Ukraine and the US did not sign a framework agreement on mineral resources.

Reactions to the meeting of the presidents.

After the meeting, Mr. Trump said via his platform Truth Social:
"I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace if America is involved… He can come back when he is ready for Peace."

Mr. Zelensky told FoxNews in an interview that he did not feel he needed to apologize for his behavior during the White House standoff, but respected the American people. He also believed that relations with Mr. Trump could be restored and said he was ready to conclude a minerals deal.

Leaders of many countries around the world have supported the Ukrainian president after a tough standoff in the White House.

The US Congressmen reacted to the conflict in the Oval Office in different ways and, mainly, along party lines - from full support for Trump's position to full support for Zelensky's position.

Ordinary Americans were as usual divided in their opinions approximately in half.

Ukrainians believe that their president did everything right because in response to Trump's attack he pushed back, but now they were “f---ed.”
I think the same, with the only difference being that Ukrainians have been “f---ed” long ago: their elites have long been robbing and weakening Ukraine instead of creating a strong, combat-ready state.

The Russians are happy and showed support for Mr. Trump after his meeting with Mr. Zelensky.

Observations and conclusions.

1. Mr. Zelensky wanted to win the US over by sharing Ukraine's mineral resources, and it worked. Mr. Trump set his own terms for the agreement, and they did not include guarantees for Ukraine's security. That was his right. It appears that Mr. Zelensky came to Washington not to sign the agreement, but to persuade Mr. Trump to change his mind. He failed. He could have avoided the trip, although Mr. Zelensky apparently felt he had to try.

2. This is the first time I have seen that the parties did not agree on their positions before the press conference, but instead staged a discussion and scandal live on air. This is probably why some sources believe that this was done on purpose, either to force Mr. Zelensky to publicly and unconditionally sign the agreement, or to provoke a scandal. This point of view has a right to exist, however, I think that we will never know the truth.

3. The US and Ukraine see the situation from opposite sides and therefore cannot agree. Mr. Zelensky correctly believes that Ukraine needs guarantees against possible Russian aggression after the signing of the ceasefire which he wants to insert into the agreement on Ukraine's mineral resources. This is important to him.
Mr. Trump believes that the existing commercial minerals agreement itself is already a guarantee of security for Ukraine because Mr. Putin “respects” him and does not want to promise anything more. This is also fundamental for him.
A conflict of interest was bound to arise with such different points of view, but it had obviously to be resolved before going to the press.

4. I would be ashamed to put such pressure on a person in negotiations, using quantitative (two against one) and qualitative (Mr. Zelensky's weak English, Ukraine's difficult situation in the war) superiority. But D. Trump is, to put it mildly, not a noble person, and he managed to pick the same kind of vice president. I would like to repeat here a phrase from one of my earlier articles: «The Americans under the leadership of the absolutely legally elected President D. Trump, their main liar and boor, will lie and throw mud at other Americans and the rest of the world for 4 years.» It has already begun and I didn't need to be a great prophet to see that.
A fish rots from the head.

5. In 20 minutes of heated exchanges, Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky with a little help of the vice president Vance have destroyed the relationship between the two countries and turned three years of aid from the US and many other countries into wasted money and efforts. The collective democratic West, despite its supposed power, was unable to support “democratic” Ukraine enough in its just war and put aggressive authoritarian Russia in its place. On the contrary, the “flagship” of the world democracy, the US, is now going over to the side of authoritarian states.

Our civilization is entering a period of Disintegration when everyone will be for himself. America under Mr. Trump is the first major democratic country to take a sharp turn towards authoritarianism and isolationism (Mr. Trump’s “America first” policy). Let's see if a country which considers itself a "democratic republic" and a "global leader" can withstand this.

6. Mr. Trump has been quite vocal in his support for Mr. Putin's views recent times. After the scandalous meeting on February 28, Mr. Trump made misleading conclusion that “President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace...”, and yet he expressed the fresh idea that "Putin wants to make a deal" during the meeting.

It seems that someone who “wants to make a deal” could simply stop his troops. Mr. Trump clearly cannot force Mr. Putin to stop, much less remove his troops from Ukraine, so he prefers to believe that Mr. Putin who started this war is a good guy, while Mr. Zelensky who is fighting for the freedom of his country on his own soil, is bad and “ungrateful” one.
I already wrote that it is much easier to put pressure on Ukraine by depriving it of the aid, than on Russia. Mr. Trump wants some kind of ceasefire quickly, the terms and duration are of no interest to him; he wants to get the Nobel Peace Prize, being a mediator and taking no obligations on.

I see that Mr. Trump has been successfully creating his own “parallel reality” in the US for some time now which is very similar to Mr. Putin’s "another world" in Russia. 77 million Americans have agreed to live in this “parallel reality,” though.

7. Mr. Zelensky is not a professional politician and cannot pretend for long despite the fact he is an actor. It is always nice to watch a natural human reactions. There are actors who can play only themselves.
Mr. Zelensky let loose some of his emotions at the White House meeting and contributed to the scandal that erupted, but it is understandable: his country and his people were reproached and accused for nothing by two gentlemen who had never participated in war. In general, Mr. Zelensky is the first (and probably the only) state leader who did not flatter and curry favor with the arrogant and vindictive president Trump.

I am sure that Mr. Trump has no brilliant plan to lure Mr. Putin into any kind of "diplomatic trap” to stop the war. He just wants to be remembered as a great peacemaker. And Mr. Trump does not want to give any guarantees even to France or his long-standing and loyal ally Great Britain: President Macron and Prime Minister Mr. Starmer recently came to the US specifically for this purpose and got nothing.

What should Ukraine and Europe do now?

Ukrainians and Europeans are now very upset by the abrupt refusal of the US to fulfill its ally functions. Even the support of Article 5 of the NATO Charter on mutual assistance is under big question.

However, on the other hand, everything is crystal clear now. Clarity is the basis for making right decisions. It is obvious that Mr. Trump will easily renounce any of his words or even signed documents, so there is no need to count on America and unpredictable Mr. Trump. Ukraine and Europe must pursue their own policies. It is time to come out from the shadow of the US.

European countries should give the Ukrainians frozen Russian $300 billion to arm Ukraine (yes, using it as a shield against Mr. Putin as long as it wants to), and strengthen their own armed forces. The longer Ukraine holds out, the longer Europe will be able to keep aggressive Russia at a distance with money, not the lives of its citizens. Our civilization is entering a period of Disintegration, wars, in particular, so this will have to be done anyway.

Ukraine should borrow money or take it away from its oligarchs, create its own weapons (it turns out that most Russians at the front are killed by drones), buy foreign weapons globally, and start paying all its soldiers well, not just the 18-24 year old recruits to lure them into the army now.

The bad thing is that all this should have been started a long time ago.
And these actions are now not only late, but will also require the impossible - the rallying of Ukrainians and citizens of European countries around their elites, which is not gonna happen. Almost in any country the elites more or less work for their own pockets which means against their people. Thus almost all nations are divided into a rich, non-working minority which makes usually bad decisions for the entire nation, and a poor, working majority reluctantly carrying out those decisions. This is the fundamental conflict of our time which, in particular, will lead to the rapid disintegration of many unions and states quite soon.

Ukraine, the US, European countries, the EU and many other states are divided internally into opposing parts and all of them have many internal problems. All this with a little help of the authoritarian rulers - Putin, Trump and Xi Jingping - will finally destroy the democratic alliances and even separate countries. Democracy in the world has clearly degenerated and turned into oligarchy/aristocracy/kleptocracy. It is rotten from the inside and is losing the war against authoritarianism.