Kremlin Backs Trump, Word Leaders Back Zelensky in Oval Office Dispute

International and domestic leaders are scrambling to make their support — or disdain — for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky known after tensions between the United States and Ukraine’s leadership exploded on Friday. 

Press, state officials, and diplomats watched in horror as Friday’s Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and Zelensky devolved into a chaotic — televised — shouting match. 

Friday’s summit was intended to end with the signing of an agreement that would allow the U.S. to mine rare-earth mineral deposits in Ukraine — an payoff for the United States’ cooperation as a negotiator for an end to the longrunning war with Russia. The negotiations were bound to be tense — given that in recent weeks Trump has been calling Zelensky a dictator while holding chummy, bilateral negotiations with Russia — but virtually no one could have anticipated the disaster that unfolded in the West Wing. 

While answering questions from reporters, the meeting devolved into a war of words after Zelensky pointed out that Russia and its President Vladimir Putin have previously broken negotiated peace agreements. Vance repeatedly accused the Ukrainian president — who struggled to respond in his non-native English — of being ungrateful and disrespectful, Trump accused him of “gambling with World War III.”

Shortly after the meeting ended, Zelensky was reportedly kicked out of the White House, the minerals agreement unsigned. A planned joint press conference scheduled for Friday afternoon was also canceled. 

As news spread, politicians at home and abroad reacted to the uniquely public breakdown. 

“You must respect those who fight,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters, adding that “We all know the situation. The aggressor is Russia, [and] Ukraine are a nation under attack […] We must respect those who have been fighting from the start — because they are fighting for their dignity, their independence, for their children and for the security of Europe.”  (Macron had earlier pushed back on the American president’s hostility toward Ukraine during his own White House visit this week.)

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón wrote on X that “Ukraine, Spain stands with you.” 

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk, wrote to his “dear Ukrainian friends,” that they are “not alone.” 

As expected, the Russian government seemed thrilled over the public spat between Trump and Zelensky. 

“The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office. And [Donald Trump] is right: The Kiev regime is ‘gambling with WWIII’” wrote Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia. 

In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that he had determined that “President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations.” 

“He can come back when he is ready for Peace,” he added. 

So much for Trump’s frequent brag that he’d be able to solve the war in “24 hours.”

Kaja Kallas, the vice president of the European Commission posted on X that the continent needs to move on from a presumption of U.S. leadership on democracy. “Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge,” she wrote.

Closer to home, prominent domestic politicians are also backing the wartorn European country in its struggle against Russia, and now with Trump.

Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the recent-former Democratic vice presidential candidate, wrote on Bluesky: “Donald Trump is embarrassing the United States on the world stage. We are a country that stands up to dictators and fights for democracy.” He added. “Minnesota stands firmly with our allies in Ukraine.”

The Democratic Senate leader Charles Schumer posted a scathing accusation on X, formerly Twitter, that “Trump and Vance are doing Putin’s dirty work.”

Liz Cheney, the prominent former Wyoming congress member, and an old-line Reagan Republican, posted on X that Zelensky is fighting for age-old American principles, and accused Trump and Vance of having “pressured him to surrender the freedom of his people to the KGB war criminal who invaded Ukraine.”

“History will remember this day,” Cheney continued, “when an American President and Vice President abandoned all we stand for.“