“A president simply disrespected America within the Oval Workplace. It wasn’t Zelenskyy.”
That was the verdict of the editorial group on the Kyiv Impartial, one among Ukraine’s main media retailers, on a outstanding spat within the Oval Workplace that performed out on Feb. 28, 2025.
The web newspaper European Pravda characterised the “quarrel on the highest degree” as a diplomatic failure, however added that it was “not but a disaster.”
Some Ukrainians I’ve spoken to for the reason that fractious encounter, throughout which Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy was repeatedly hectored by U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, have certainly characterised it as disastrous for the country. However for others, the incident has been calmly accepted because the new reality in U.S.-Ukraine relations.
There have been some questions directed at Zelenskyy – did he enable himself to be baited into an an argument that would have actual penalties? Ought to he have remained silent? However for probably the most half, the remedy of Ukraine’s president by Trump and Vance has produced a presumably unintended consequence: It has unified a war-weary Ukrainian people.
As one buddy who has been displaced by warfare from the now occupied metropolis of Nova Kakhovka instructed me, there has not been this degree of mobilization and patriotism in three years.
‘The nation wants unity’
This unity is seen within the response throughout Ukraine’s political divide.
Petro Poroshenko, an typically outspoken opponent of Zelenskyy and chief of the opposition get together European Solidarity, mentioned on March 1 that, to the shock of many, he will not criticize Zelenskyy’s performance on the White Home. “The nation doesn’t want criticism, the nation wants unity,” he mentioned within the video posted on X.
Anecdotally, even these Ukrainians who didn’t vote for Zelenskyy have instructed me that occasions within the Oval Workplace made them really feel extra supportive of Zelenskyy.
Nevertheless, a way of realism is sinking in over the shifting stance of the U.S. administration. Trump’s stated trust in Vladimir Putin and his conciliatory feedback over Russian aggression – together with a refusal to acknowledge Russian warfare crimes – have, for a lot of Ukrainians, set low expectations that the White Home might help obtain a fast and lasting peace. But, as Inna Sovsun of the opposition party Holos noted, “It was tough to look at a president who’s been a sufferer of Russian aggression being attacked by the chief of the free world.”
Setting the document straight
The Feb. 28 assembly between the U.S. and Ukrainian leaders adopted weeks of increasingly harsh Trump rhetoric towards Zelenskyy. Since being inaugurated on Jan. 20, Trump has called the Ukrainian leader a “dictator with out elections,” claiming – incorrectly – that Zelenksyy had 4% approval rankings. He additionally indicted that the invasion by Russian troops in February 2022 was Ukraine’s fault.
Such feedback had already made Ukrainians rally round Zelenskyy, who has a wholesome 63% approval ranking, according to the latest polls.
The ugly scenes within the Oval Workplace may see an additional rallying round Zelenskyy, particularly if he can efficiently characterize his function within the dispute as that of defender of his folks. Doing so would faucet into rising well-liked resentment over the brand new U.S. administration’s obvious unwillingness to acknowledge Russian war crimes.
Photo by Pierre Crom/Getty Images
Within the days main as much as the Zelenskyy-Trump assembly, the U.S. voted with Russia against a United Nations resolution condemning Russian aggression and opposed the wording of a draft G7 statement marking the third anniversary of the warfare, which depicted Russia because the aggressor.
Letting Putin off the hook
The indignant exchanges within the Oval Workplace appeared to have been sparked by Zelenskyy’s objection to Trump’s assertion that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a person of his phrase.
That refusal to name out Putin – who faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court – angers Ukrainians who’ve suffered Russian aggression for 3 years. To hammer that time residence, Zekenskyy confirmed Trump and others within the Oval Workplace photographs of Ukrainian prisoners of warfare who return from Russian captivity tortured and abused.
As Ukrainian human rights lawyer and Nobel Prize winner Oleksandra Matviichuk famous in a Feb. 17 speech, 65% of Ukrainians polled early within the battle mentioned their most important disappointment in ending the warfare could be “impunity for Russian crimes.” Three years of battle can have solely hardened that sentiment – but the U.S., beneath Trump’s management, seems to be increasingly willing to let Putin off the hook.
Defender of the nation – and reality
A big part of Ukrainian media – each historically pro- and anti-Zelenskyy alike – have since Feb. 28 portrayed the president within the function of a defender of each his nation and the reality.
He was, this framing has it, compelled into the tough place of getting to set the document straight and problem unfaithful statements in actual time, and in entrance of the seemingly antagonistic chief of the world’s largest financial system, whose help has been essential in Ukraine’s try to repel the invading Russian army.
To some, maintaining silent would have been tantamount to capitulation, however others have questioned Zelenskyy’s strategy.
Whereas nonetheless sustaining that Zelenskyy’s key message was right, some Ukrainians have steered that his emotional tone in the Oval Office was not constructive.
Opposition lawmaker Oleskiy Goncharenko steered in an interview on CNN that Zelenskyy ought to have been more “diplomatic” and more “calm” provided that the stakes had been so excessive.
In the meantime, there have been additionally those that questioned the choice to carry such an essential dialog in entrance of the press, particularly with out the usage of skilled translators who probably may have tamped down the rhetoric and slowed the tempo of the change. Thus, as Tymofiy Mylovanov, the adviser to the workplace of the president and head of the Kyiv College of Economics put it, some issues may “have been lost in translation.”
‘Zelensky is our democratic chief’
So the place does the Oval Workplace dispute go away each Zelenskyy and U.S.-Ukrainian relations?
Within the aftermath of the dispute, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham – who has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine – steered that Zelenskyy should resign, the implications being that his relationship with Trump was so damaged that his presence is now counterproductive for Ukraine’s priorities.
It’s a line that hasn’t gone down nicely in Ukraine. Kira Rudyk, the chief of opposition get together Holos, retorted that it was up to the Ukrainian people alone to decide on their leadership and future.
Furthermore, to many Ukrainians the barrier to harmonious Ukraine-U.S. relations shouldn’t be Zelenskyy, however Trump.
Mustafa Nayyem, who served in Zelesnkyy’s authorities, summed up the view of many Ukrainians by claiming in a social media post that the Trump administration “doesn’t simply dislike Ukraine. They despise us.” The “contempt is deeper than indifference, and extra harmful than outright hostility,” he added within the Feb. 28 put up.
Intentional provocation
Serhii Sternenko, a Ukrainian activist lawyer and blogger, described the Oval Office spat as an intentional provocation on behalf of Trump to discredit Ukraine as an unreliable companion within the peace negotiations.
Sternenko shouldn’t be alone in his evaluation. Journalist and blogger Vitaly Portnikov argued that the spat was the results of Trump’s unrealistic promise of ending the warfare shortly being confronted with the truth that maybe Russia doesn’t wish to make any concessions. The pondering right here is Putin has proven no indication that he’ll bend on his war goals, so for Trump, framing Zelenskyy as “not prepared for peace” permits the U.S. president to stroll away from his marketing campaign promise with out accepting defeat.
Justin Tallis – WPA Pool/Getty Images
A brand new actuality
Past the headlines and preliminary reactions from Ukrainian politicians, journalists and civilians, there’s additionally one other sentiment that’s rising: resignation to the brand new actuality.
Most Ukrainians want an end to war, however in a manner that preserves their sovereignty and guarantees future security. Till not too long ago, that was shared by the occupants of the White Home. It’s changing into more and more clear to many Ukrainians that, with reference the warfare in Ukraine, the U.S. will play a distinct function beneath Trump – which means Ukraine will more and more look to European leaders as major companions.
Maybe Goncharenko, the opposition member of Ukraine’s Parliament, best summed up the consequences of the Oval Workplace spat: “It was not Ukraine, it was not the US who gained … it was Putin.”
