NATO chief Mark Rutte said on Saturday he told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he needs to find a way to restore his relationship with President Donald Trump after Friday’s clash during a White House meeting.
‘It is important that President Zelensky finds a way to restore his relationship with the American President and with the senior American leadership team,’ Rutte told the BBC, commenting on a call he had with Zelensky on Friday.
He described the meeting at the White House as ‘unfortunate’.
Rutte’s dire warning to the war-time president comes as Zelensky duked it out with Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office over the conditions of a possible ceasefire with Russia.
Tempers flared on all sides, with Trump threatening to abandon Ukraine completely if Zelensky didn’t agree to his peace terms.
He and Vance also repeatedly accused Zelensky of not being grateful for America’s sustained military support of Ukraine, which has totaled to roughly $100 billion per one recent estimate.
Meanwhile, Zelensky showed pictures of the devastation of his country to Trump while also arguing he head thanked the American people for their aid.
The yelling match was unlike anything ever seen publicly in the Oval Office. And it played out on TV screens across the world.
NATO chief Mark Rutte revealed he told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he needs to find a way to restore his relationship with President Donald Trump after their meeting went horribly wrong at the White House
Trump and Zelensky are seen in the Oval Office arguing over how a wind down to the war between Ukraine and Russia should look like
Zelensky was set off when Vance claimed Trump was attempting to engage in diplomacy, whereas President Joe Biden wasn’t able to stop 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and spent four years ‘talking tough about Vladimir Putin.’
‘He occupied big parts of Ukraine. Parts of the east and parts of Crimea. He occupied it in 2014’ Zelensky responded, referring to Putin. ‘During 2014, nobody stopped him. He just occupied and took. He killed people.’
Zelensky added that he signed a ceasefire agreement with Russia in 2019 – a treaty also signed by Germany and France. He claimed Putin has been violating that agreement by launching incursions and also not abiding by a prisoner-swap deal.
‘What kind of diplomacy, JD, are you speaking about?’ Zelensky asked the vice president.
‘I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country,’ Vance said.
When Zelensky tried to cut in, Vance continued with: ‘Mr. President, Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful to for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media. 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 trying to bring an end to this conflict,’ Vance added.
