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02-03-2025
MOSCOW: Friday’s drama in the Oval Office sparked a swift reaction from many world leaders but not from Vladimir Putin. There’s been no comment so far from the Kremlin leader.
Then again, he doesn’t really need to say anything. President Putin can afford to sit back and watch events unfold.
Donald Trump predicted that the very public spat with President Zelensky was “going to be great television”.
There’s little doubt that Vladimir Putin will have enjoyed the “show”, the dramatic spectacle of Volodymyr Zelensky, leader of the country President Putin invaded, being berated by the president and vice-president of the United States in front of the world’s media.
Some Russian officials have commented, though, on events in Washington.
In a post on social media, former president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy head of the Russian security council, wrote that President Zelensky had received “a slap down in the Oval Office”. He called on the US to stop military assistance to Ukraine.
Writing on Telegram, foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova praised Trump and JD Vance for their “miracle of restraint” at not hitting Ukraine’s president.
It’s a sign of the new world in which we seem to be now that, while US-Ukraine relations are at risk of implosion, the opposite is true for US-Russia ties.
In recent weeks, Trump and Putin have spoken on the phone and pledged to work closely together; there’s talk of a possible summit sometime soon; lower-level US-Russia talks to reset relations and discuss potential economic cooperation have already started.
President Putin has dangled the carrot of lucrative joint projects with the Americans involving rare earth minerals and aluminium production.
The implications of a breakdown in relations between Ukraine and the US are potentially very serious for Kyiv, but very positive for Moscow.
If the flow of American weapons to Ukraine were to stop, it would be much harder for Ukrainians to defend themselves against the Russian forces who have invaded their country, even if Ukraine enjoys solidarity and strong support from European leaders.
For some time now, Moscow has believed that the war in Ukraine has been going Russia’s way. The shouting-match in the Oval Office will have cemented that view.
Ukraine’s president had been hoping to leave the White House on Friday after positive talks with Donald Trump, capped with the signing of a minerals deal giving the US a real stake in his country’s future, if not an outright security guarantee.
Instead Volodymyr Zelensky faced an extraordinary dressing down in front of the world’s media, after President Trump and his Vice-President JD Vance demanded that he show more gratitude for years of US support.
The Ukrainian president pushed back at suggestions from his more powerful partners that he should work harder to agree a ceasefire with Vladimir Putin. They responded that he was being “disrespectful”.
Zelensky was eventually told to leave the White House early before he and Trump could even take the stage for a scheduled news conference and the minerals deal, which had been trailed and praised by both sides this week, was left unsigned. “Come back when you’re ready for peace,” Trump wrote on social media shortly before Zelensky’s car pulled away.
There were several major flashpoints in the meeting. Here are four of the fieriest and the politics and feeling that lies behind them.
While there was half an hour of cordial talks and formalities at the start, tensions began to boil over in the Oval Office when Vance said the “path to peace and the path to prosperity is maybe engaging in diplomacy”. (Int’l News Desk)
