Nasty showdown

American President Donald Trump is not known for exercising restraint in word or deed. And he certainly pulled no punches during his showdown with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office on Friday. However, the Russians saw things in a different light. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova lauded Trump and his deputy JD Vance for displaying a ‘miracle of restraint’ by refraining from hitting ‘scumbag’ Zelenskyy. Even though Trump mercifully didn’t go the whole hog, Russia has every reason to be ecstatic about the disastrous meeting. The US President blew his top when the Ukrainian leader held Vladimir Putin responsible for triggering the war in 2022. Springing to the Russian President’s defence, Trump chided Zelenskyy for “speaking badly about somebody else”. That left no room for doubt about which way the American wind was blowing.

Advertisement

The writing was on the wall last month when Trump called Zelenskyy a dictator and accused him of starting the Ukraine war. The latter had hit back by saying that the US President was “living in a disinformation space” created by Russia. Now, US-Ukraine relations have hit a new low. The unsavoury development has prompted Europe to go into a huddle. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who greeted a visibly rattled Zelenskyy with a comforting hug in London on Saturday, is still hopeful that peace talks can be revived. Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, who met Trump in Washington last week, are trying to convince him that a forced ceasefire that doesn’t provide security guarantees to Ukraine would fail to deter Russia from launching another invasion.

The challenge for European leaders is to pacify the US President and stop him from rushing headlong into a deal skewed in Russia’s favour. That looks like a tall order right now — Trump seems to be lapping up all the Russian praise coming his way and is in no mood to forgive an ‘ungrateful’ Zelenskyy.