Trump’s lashing of Zelensky prompts brutal two-word put-down from Russia
Donald Trump’s tirade at Volodymyr Zelensky was met with delight in Russia where the Ukrainian leader was called an “insolent pig” who “got a proper slap down” – and a key US politician has also piled in.
The US leader blasted Zelensky for being “disrespectful” at an explosive Oval Office meeting and he left without a minerals deal that Trump said would have moved Ukraine closer to ending the war with Russia. In the wake of the debacle, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to shift the blame to the Ukrainian President, saying: “You guys only saw the end, you don’t see all the things that led up to this.”
The Ukrainian leader was asked to leave by top White House advisers shortly after Trump shouted at him, showing open disdain. “You’re gambling with World War III, and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country that’s backed you far more than a lot of people say they should have,” Trump told Zelensky.
The last 10 minutes of the nearly 45-minute meeting devolved into a tense back and forth between Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Zelensky, who had urged scepticism about Russia’s commitment to diplomacy, citing Moscow’s years of broken commitments on the global stage.
But while the war of words was a major disappointment for the West, in Russia they appeared to be enjoying the spat. The US President has received support from the Kremlin as Kirill A. Dmitriev, Special Envoy of the President of Russia for investment and economic cooperation with foreign countries, posted a brutal statement on X. It read: “The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office. And @realDonaldTrump is right: The Kiev regime is ‘gambling with WWIII’.”
While Keir Starmer expressed “unwavering support for Ukraine,” responses to Dmitriev’s post included references to the way Trump mocked Zelensky’s choice of attire – an all black outfit. Vance also challenged Mr Zelensky in front of numerous media outlets, claiming the Ukraine leader brings politicians on a “propaganda tour” in order to secure funds and weapons for his fight against Vladimir Putin.
“You bring them on a propaganda tour,” Vance stated before claiming that Ukraine was having trouble keeping the military properly staffed. However, Zelensky fired back at Vance asking: “Have you ever been to Ukraine?”
When Vance failed to answer, the Ukrainian leader continued: “Have you seen the problems we have? Come once… 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.”
At that point, Trump jumped into the conversation saying: “You don’t know that. Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. We’re trying to solve a problem.” It was at that point, all three men started talking over each other. This soon led to Mr Trump axing the joint press briefing and turfing Zelensky out of the White House.
Later, Rubio backed Trump in a rant against Zeklensky, saying: “You guys only saw the end, you don’t see all the things that led up to this. The president’s been very clear on this, he campaigned on this. He thinks this war should have never started and I agree that had he been president it never would have happened.
“Now here we are, he’s trying to bring an end to this conflict, we’ve explained very clearly what our plan is here: we want to get the Russians to a negotiating table, we want to explore whether peace is possible.”
Rubio inferred that Zelensky hitting back at Trump in the run up to the meeting, after the US president had called him a dictator and blamed Ukraine for starting the war, despite Russia having invaded, led to a “predictable outcome”, adding in a further dig at the Ukrainian leader: “Apologise for turning this thing into the fiasco that it became.
“Don’t come here and create a scenario where you’re going to start lecturing us about how diplomacy isn’t going to work. Zelensky took it in that direction and it ended in a predictable outcome as a result.”
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