LONDON: Volodymyr Zelensky insisted on Saturday that Donald Trump’s support was still “crucial” for Ukraine despite an undiplomatic row with the US president that left Kyiv’s European allies scrambling for new responses to Russia’s invasion.
The Ukrainian president touched down in London for a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Saturday afternoon, ahead of emergency talks on Sunday with Kyiv’s European backers, blindsided by the stunning White House blow-up in which Trump berated Zelensky for not being “ready” for peace with Russia.
Friday’s argument sent alarm bells ringing across Europe, with Germany branding it the start of a “new age of infamy,” while Russia reacted gleefully to Trump’s apparent takedown of Zelensky, Ukraine’s wartime leader throughout Moscow’s more than three-year-long invasion.
Following the clash, Zelensky departed the White House without signing an expected deal on Kyiv’s rare minerals, but the Ukrainian leader insisted he was still “ready” to sign the agreement as “the first step toward security guarantees.”
“It’s crucial for us to have President Trump’s support. He wants to end the war, but no one wants peace more than we do,” Zelensky said in a post on social media platform X.
European leaders rallied to Zelensky’s defense, with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying Ukraine was “not alone” and Starmer vowing “unwavering support” for Kyiv.
Others pressed for an olive branch. In an interview with the BBC, NATO chief Mark Rutte said that he talked to Zelensky and told him he had to “find a way” to restore his relationship with Trump after the row.
Trump stunned many in Europe when he reached out to Russian President Vladimir Putin to seek a deal on Ukraine, which Moscow invaded three years ago.
The Republican’s sudden shift on Ukraine, sidelining Kyiv and Europe while pursuing rapprochement with Putin, has rattled the transatlantic NATO alliance.
Those concerns were only exacerbated Friday by the scene that played out in the White House, where the years-long US policy of massive support for Ukraine collapsed in a shouting match.
During the televised clash, Trump and Vice President JD Vance shouted at Zelensky, accusing him of not being “thankful” and refusing to accept their proposed truce terms.
“You’re either going to make a deal or we’re out, and if we’re out, you’ll fight it out and I don’t think it’s going to be pretty,” Trump said.
Though he refused to apologize, the day after Zelensky indicated that he was still open to signing the deal on Ukraine’s mineral wealth coveted by Trump, insisting that “despite the tough dialogue” Ukraine and the United States “remain strategic partners.”
“But we need to be honest and direct with each other to truly understand our shared goals,” the Ukrainian leader wrote on X.
Russia was meanwhile delighted.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev called Zelensky an “insolent pig” who had received “a proper slap down.”
Zelensky’s Washington trip was a “complete failure,” Moscow said.
Passers-by on the streets of Moscow welcomed Trump’s war of words with his Ukrainian counterpart.
“Frankly speaking, it was very pleasing that (Zelensky) got such a rebuke in the White House,” nursery worker Galina Tolstykh told AFP.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock accused Trump of “switching... the roles of victim and aggressor” in the conflict, branding the footage of the argument “unspeakable.”
“Yesterday evening underlined that a new age of infamy has begun,” she said.
Trump has alarmed Kyiv and European allies with his abrupt U-turn in US policy, casting himself as a mediator between Putin and Zelensky and refusing to condemn the Russian invasion.
He said in the Oval Office that he had “spoken on numerous occasions” to Putin — more than has been publicly reported.
With fears over whether the United States will continue to support NATO mounting, Sunday’s gathering in the UK will also address the need for Europe to increase defense cooperation.
French President Emmanuel Macron has said he is ready to “open the discussion” on a possible future European nuclear deterrent.
Germany’s likely next leader, Friedrich Merz, also stressed the need for the continent to move quickly to “achieve independence” from the United States on defense matters.
But Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban — the closest ally of Trump and the Kremlin in the European Union — vowed to oppose a bloc-wide agreement on the conflict at the upcoming gathering.
“I am convinced that the European Union — following the example of the United States — should enter into direct discussions with Russia on a ceasefire and a sustainable peace in Ukraine,” Orban wrote in a letter.
Meanwhile, Russia’s assault on Ukraine continued.
Russian infantry were storming the Ukrainian border from the Russian region of Kursk, near areas that were seized last summer by Ukrainian forces, Kyiv said Friday.
And Moscow said Saturday it had seized two more villages in the south of the eastern Donetsk region.
