Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: The unprecedented verbal spat between US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday, in full view of the global media, reminded many of The Great Dictator, the 1936 film of Charlie Chaplin, playing Adolf Hiter, in which he clashed with visiting Italian leader Benito Mussolini.
Meanwhile, some European leaders, mainly in the Left-Liberal-Labour ecosystem, have supported Zelenskyy, who, according to reports, has declined to apologize.
While an angry Trump, who even warned Zelenskyy that he was “gambling with the Third World War,” ordered the immediate suspension of technology help to Ukraine to disable its precision-attacks on Russia, and called his advisors to suggest further steps against Kyiv, his Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanded that Zelenskyy tender an apology to the US President and Vice President J D Vance for the Oval Office spat, the media reported on Saturday.
In an interview with CNN, Rubio said there was no need for President Zelenskyy to “go in there and become antagonistic.”
The leaders’ shouting match was witnessed by White House officials, mediapersons and American and Ukrainian officials.
Rubio stressed that Trump wants to bring the Russians to the negotiating table and put an end to the ongoing conflict which entered the third year on February 24.
The US Secretary of State said: “President Trump has been very clear. He campaigned on this (in his presidential election last year). He thinks this war should have never started. He believes, and I agree, that had he been president it never would have happened. Now, here we are. He’s trying to bring an end to this conflict. We’ve explained very clearly what our plan is here, which is we want to get the Russians to a negotiating table. We want to explore whether peace is possible. They understand this. They also understand that this agreement (about Ukraine’s minerals) that was supposed to be signed today was supposed to be an agreement that binds America economically to Ukraine, which to me, as I’ve explained, I think the President alluded to today is a security guarantee in its own way because we’re involved, it’s not us, it’s our interests. That was all explained. That was all understood.”
“And nonetheless, for the last ten days and every engagement we’ve had with the Ukrainians, there’s been complications in getting that point across, including the public statements that President Zelenskyy has made. But they insisted on coming to (Washington) DC. This agreement could have been signed five days ago, but they insisted on coming to Washington. And it was a very and should have been a very clear understanding, don’t come here and create a scenario where you’re going to start lecturing us about how diplomacy isn’t going to work.
“So, as President Zelenskyy took it in that direction and it ended in a predictable outcome as a result. It’s unfortunate that was supposed to be this way, but that’s the path he chose. And I think, frankly, you know, sends his country backwards in regards to achieving peace, which is what President Trump wants at the end of the day, is for this war to end. He’s been as consistent as anyone can be about what his objective is here,” he added.
The verbal clash between the leaders started after Zelenskyy asked Vance on what kind of diplomacy they are talking about. Rubio said the meeting went “off the rails” after that interaction.
Asked on what does he want to see Zelenskyy apologise for, Rubio stated, “Well, apologize for turning this thing into the fiasco for him that it became. There was no need for him to go in there and become antagonistic. Look, this thing went off the rails. You were there, I believe it went off the rails when he said, let me ask you a question to the Vice President, ‘What kind of diplomacy are you talking about?’ Well, this this is a serious thing. I mean, thousands of people have been killed. Thousands and he talks about all these horrible things that have happened to prisoners of war and children. All true, all bad. This is what we’re dealing with here. It needs to come to an end. We are trying to bring it to an end.”
“The way you bring it to an end is you get Russia to the table to talk, and he understands that attacking Putin, no matter how anyone may feel about him personally, forcing the president into a position where you’re trying to go to him into attacking Putin, calling him names, maximalist demands about Russia having to pay for the reconstruction, all the sorts of things that you talk about in a negotiation when you start talking about that aggressively and the president’s a dealmaker. He’s made deals his entire life. You’re not going to get people to the table. And so you start to perceive that maybe Zelenskyy doesn’t want a peace deal. He says he does, but maybe he doesn’t and that active open undermining of efforts to bring about peace is deeply frustrating for everyone who’s been involved in communications with them leading up to today. And I think the campaign for wasting our time for a meeting that was going to end the way it did,” he added.
Ironically, the Oval Office meeting on Friday began with warm exchanges and handshakes, with Trump at one point saying of Zelensky: “I think he’s a great guy.” But matters took an ugly turn after Zelensky attempted to explain Russian President Vladimir Putin’s lack of diplomacy to Vice President Vance in a heated confrontation in front of live cameras and journalists.
In turn, Vance accused Zelenskyy of “litigating” in front of the world’s press, criticized him for taking part in photo-ops with Democrats during the 2024 presidential campaign in the US, and said his remarks were “disrespectful” to the Trump administration.
Raising his voice, President Trump also called the Ukrainian counterpart “disrespectful” and told him he should be thanking the US, saying, “You don’t have the cards.” “You are either going to make a deal or we’re out and if we are out, you will fight it out. I don’t think it’s going to be pretty,” he added.
Trump and Zelensky were set to sign a deal that would have created a joint US-Ukraine fund investing in extracting the war-torn country’s rare-earth mineral supply. Friday’s meeting was supposed to ink a deal on these minerals which are used to make a variety of technology products.