Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump had a falling out at the White House

^{Photo: Reuters}
US President Donald Trump met with Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. Ukrainian media reported that the press conference in the Oval Office ended in a tense atmosphere.

The situation escalated after the Ukrainian leader said that Kiev was not ready to cease fire and needed security guarantees from Washington.

In response, Trump told Zelensky that he was not “showing enough respect” to the United States and that “America has no right to dictate how it should behave.”

He added that Kiev must make "compromises" in the process of peacemaking, and that the United States will not participate if the Ukrainian government refuses to sign an agreement.

“You can’t tell us, ‘I want this, I want that.’ Without us, you have no cards, you should be grateful to us. We gave you $350 billion, and you are in a difficult situation now. You can’t say, ‘I’m not going to stop the war.’ Either we make this deal or you walk out of it. You are not grateful,” Trump said.

“I didn’t come here to play cards,” Zelensky replied, adding that he had signed the agreement with Putin in the presence of Macron and Merkel.

Trump also said that the agreement on minerals would be signed today. When asked if the White House chief of staff would send more weapons to Ukraine if a ceasefire doesn’t happen, he answered in the affirmative.

“Yes, we will send more weapons. But we don’t expect to send a lot of weapons, we hope to end the war quickly and get on with other things,” Trump said.

The meeting ended with Trump accusing Zelensky of "playing with starting World War III" and saying, "This would be a great show for television." Follow “Zamin” news on “Telegram”