A consensus seems to be forming, in certain quarters, that the debacle at the White House meeting on Friday – which played out before an incredulous world – was in large part Volodymyr Zelensky’s fault. Ukraine’s president is certainly paying a heavy price: overnight, Donald Trump has halted military aid to Ukraine. “We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution,” a White House official has said.
Aside from the Republican politicians racing to side with Trump following the White House row, there have been voices nearer home. Presenter of the Triggernometry podcast Konstantin Kisin, who initially sided with the Ukrainian leader, tweeted out after watching the entire meeting that ‘Zelensky decided to attack [American Vice President J.D.] Vance unnecessarily. He totally messed this up… I hope he can see sense, apologise and get a deal for his country. This was not smart.’
Jawad Iqbal, in these very pages, has declared that ‘Ukraine’s leader put his vanity and pride before the wider interests of his country in reacting the way he did to Trump’s remarks and behaviour’.
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