Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit the White House Monday to meet with President Donald Trump, following the U.S. president’s Friday meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The visit marks the first time Zelenskyy has returned to the White House since February, where he sparred openly with Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office over engaging in diplomacy with Russia to end the conflict. The encounter prompted Vance to ask the Ukrainian leader if he’d ‘said thank you once this entire meeting.’
The tense exchange started after Zelenskyy challenged Vance’s statements that diplomacy was the right path to end the conflict. Zelenskyy questioned the value of diplomacy, and brought up that Putin has broken other agreements in the past.
‘What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are speaking about?’ Zelenskyy said. ‘What do you mean?’
Vance said, ‘I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country.’
‘Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media,’ Vance said. ‘Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the president for bringing it, to bring it into this country.’
‘Have you ever been to Ukraine, that you say what problems we have?’ Zelenskyy said.
‘I’ve actually watched and seen the stories and I know that what happens is you bring people, you bring them on a propaganda tour,’ Vance said. ‘Mr. President, do you disagree that you’ve had problems bringing people into your military? And 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, trying to prevent the destruction of your country?’
The exchange prompted Trump to temporarily put a pause on peace negotiations, saying that Zelenskyy could return to the White House when he was ‘ready’ for peace. Following his departure from the White House, Zelenskyy then posted a statement on X thanking the U.S., Trump, Congress and the American people for their support for Ukraine.
Unlike the meeting in February, Zelenskyy will be joined Monday by other European leaders who have backed Ukraine, including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
Meanwhile, Trump said that it’s up to Zelenskyy whether the war with Russia comes to an end, and stipulated that doing so would require certain land concessions to Russia. He also ruled out NATO membership for Ukraine under a potential peace deal.
‘President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,’ Trump said in a Sunday post on social media. ‘Remember how it started. No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!’
Even so, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said Sunday that Putin has agreed to permit the U.S. and other European allies to provide bolstered protection for Ukraine, akin to protections offered under NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense clause.
‘We were able to win the following concession that the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO,’ Witkoff said in an interview with CNN.
