US President Donald Trump has accused Volodymyr Zelenskyy of “gambling with world war three” as a White House meeting on ending the war in Ukraine devolved into a tense dispute.
Raising his voice at Zelenskyy, Trump said: “You don’t have the cards right now with us, you start having problems right now. You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with world war three.”
Vice-president JD Vance said: “Do you think that it’s respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?”
The Ukrainian leader responded: “Everybody has problems, even you but you have nice ocean and don’t feel (it) now, but you will feel it in the future.”
Zelenskyy has been seeking a seat at the negotiating table after Trump blindsided Kyiv and other European capitals by launching direct talks with Putin over ending the conflict.
Trump said on Friday the Ukrainian president “will have to make compromises”, adding that Kyiv “will not go back to fighting” if a peace deal is struck, according to early media reports from their meeting.
The leaders are also set to sign a minerals deal that would set up a joint US-Ukrainian “investment fund” that would receive 50 per cent of all revenues from the “future monetisation” of natural resources owned by Kyiv.
The text lacks explicit US security guarantees that Zelenskyy had sought, but Trump has said the presence of American workers and economic interests in Ukraine would be a sufficient deterrent to possible Russian aggression.
On Friday, Trump described the deal as “very fair”.
