It was a meeting that shocked the world when Ukraine’s President Zelensky was berated in front of global media by Donald Trump and JD Vance in the White House – but now the Ukrainian leader has revealed he had a plan all along before the contentious head-to-head began. Speaking to Time magazine Mr Zelensky said he had planned to hand over a gift to the President Trump during their first meeting in the Oval Office to discuss a proposed minerals deal and peace plans.
The gift brought by the wartime leader was a piece of sporting history, the heavyweight world championship boxing belt of Mr Zelensky’s friend, the Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk. But during the tense initial stages of speaking to Mr Trump, Mr Zelensky instead first reached for a folder containing images of Ukrainian soldiers tortured in captivity by the Russians.
The shocking photographs clearly moved the US President, who said “that’s tough stuff”, but there was no time to hand over the more prestigious boxing belt offering before the meeting began to spiral out of control.
Moments later the Oval Office seemed to become something of a verbal boxing match itself, with viewers all over the world given a ringside seat to the US President and his number two tearing into Mr Zelensky.
As the US president met his counterpart in the Oval Office, their discussions became heated, with Mr Trump saying “you’re gambling with millions of people … You’re gambling with World War Three”, to which Mr Zelensky countered with a warning the US would “feel it in the future” if it did not continue to support Ukraine.
“Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. We’re trying to solve a problem,” Mr Trump jabbed back.
During the explosive February 28 exchange US vice president JD Vance questioned why Mr Zelensky had not said “thank you” for US military aid during the meeting.
Mr Vance was also heard to say to the Ukrainian leader: “Mr President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and 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 bringing an end to this conflict.”
The fractious meeting came after Sir Keir Starmer and France’s president Emmanuel Macron travelled to Washington DC for talks with Mr Trump.
After the fireworks of his meeting with Mr Trump, Mr Zelensky immediately left Washington on a flight to London where he was greeted by the PM and later granted an audience with King Charles III, before meeting European leaders that weekend.