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President Donald Trump has cut short talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after he and Vice President JD Vance berated the Ukrainian leader in the Oval Office.
The breakdown of negotiations come at a pivotal and precarious moment for Ukraine as Zelenskyy sought security guarantees from the U.S. and Trump’s administration seeks to negotiate an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.
Associated Press White House correspondent Zeke Miller said what started as business as usual in the Oval Office meeting suddenly went sour.
“Then it took a very dramatic turn towards the last ten minutes of the meeting with shouting, finger pointing and really a display of animosity largely from the US side towards the Ukrainians for saying that the US wasn't, that the Ukrainians weren't being grateful enough to the US for their billions of dollars of support in the nearly three year, the more than three year Russian invasion,” Miller said.
Following the Oval Office meeting, there was supposed to be a press conference with the two leaders, and an agreement as well.
“There was supposed to be a press conference in the East Room of the White House, where we were expecting Trump and Zelensky to sign a critical minerals agreement that Trump has really demanded that the Ukrainian government sign up to give the U.S. an economic stake in Ukraine's future. Zelensky left without that press conference and without signing that agreement as well,” Miller said.