UA POV-Opinion | Zelensky should apologize to Trump to help Ukraine. Zelensky's stubbornness has badly hurt Ukraine.-WP
Opinion | Zelensky should apologize to Trump to help Ukraine
Zelensky's stubbornness has badly hurt Ukraine.
Today at 6:03 p.m. EST
On Thursday, President Donald Trump was publicly pledging to help Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky regain Russian-occupied territory at the peace table. “A lot of the sea line has been taken, and we’ll be talking about that,” Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “And we’re going to see if we can get it back or get a lot of it back for Ukraine.”
A day later, Zelensky was engaged in an unprecedented war of words with Trump in the Oval Office — after which the planned signing of a historic minerals deal between the two countries was shelved.
The blowup was Zelensky’s fault. To understand why, one needs to watch the entire 50-minute meeting unfold. Trump greeted Zelensky graciously, praising the courage and resilience of the Ukrainian people, and dismissed their earlier rift as “a little negotiations spat.”
Even after Zelensky refused a White House request to wear a suit, Trump praised his outfit, saying, “I think he’s dressed beautifully.” Trump extolled the minerals deal they had reached and said, “We look forward to getting in and digging, digging, digging.” He publicly pledged to continue military aid to Ukraine and even held out the possibility that he “could conceivably” commit U.S. troops alongside British and French troops to provide security after a peace deal was reached.
This should have been music to Zelensky’s ears. He should have taken the win. Instead, about 24 minutes in — long before his terse exchange with Vice President JD Vance — Zelensky started criticizing Trump in front of the assembled reporters.
He summarily dismissed Trump’s idea of an immediate ceasefire — something that is extremely important to Trump, who is committed to stopping the killing — because he said Putin had already broken ceasefires 25 times.
“He never broke to me,” Trump said. “No, no, you were the president,” Zelensky contradicted him. “He never broke to me,” Trump repeated. Instead of letting it pass, Zelensky contradicted him again: “In 2016, you’ve been the president, Mr. President” he said, adding, “That’s why we will never accept just a ceasefire. It will not work without security guarantees.”
Why on earth did Zelensky choose to fact-check Trump in front of the entire world rather than debate the wisdom of a ceasefire behind closed doors?
A few moments later, after Trump bemoaned the destruction of Ukrainian cities, Zelensky interrupted him again. “No, no, no, you have to come, Mr. President, you have to come and to look. No, no, no, we have very good cities.” He then suggested that Trump was falling for Putin’s propaganda, declaring, “iIt’s Putin that is sharing this information that he destroyed us.” But Trump was right: Many Ukrainian cities have been destroyed.
Zelensky’s intervention was reckless and unnecessary. He was in Washington to heal a breach that began with his public suggestion that Trump was living in a Russian “disinformation space” — a suggestion that prompted Trump to lash out and call Zelensky a “dictator without elections.” Why would he do it again? You could see Trump’s demeanor stiffening with every public contradiction from Zelensky.
Then a Polish journalist asked Trump whether he had aligned himself too much with Putin. “You want me to say really terrible things about Putin and then say, ‘Hi, Vladimir, how are we doing on the deal?’ That doesn’t work that way.” That was when Vance jumped in. “For four years in the United States of America, we had a president who stood up at news conferences and talked tough about Vladimir Putin and then Putin invaded Ukraine and destroyed a significant chunk of the country,” Vance said. “The path to peace and the path to prosperity is maybe engaging in diplomacy.”
There was no reason for Zelensky to comment on Vance’s anodyne intervention about the virtues of diplomacy. But he inserted himself into the discussion and chastised Vance, pointing out that “during 2014 till 2022 … people have been dying on the contact line. Nobody stopped him” — effectively accusing Trump of standing by while Ukrainians were killed. He then underlined that Putin had broken a ceasefire he signed in 2019 while Trump was in office. “What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are speaking about?” Zelensky said, first-naming the vice president.
That was all the opening Vance, a Ukraine critic, needed. “I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country,” Vance replied tersely, adding, “Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media.”
After that, all hell broke loose.
Zelensky should not have litigated any disagreements with Trump in front of the media. As retired Gen. Jack Keane noted on Fox News, “He should have understood going into the Oval Office today that when the cameras are on … the only answer to the questions should be, from Zelesnky’s point, ‘Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, America. I’m going to work with you to achieve a peaceful end to this war.’ Period.”
Keane is right. This should have been a backslapping, feel-good meeting celebrating the minerals deal. Instead, Zelensky hijacked the meeting, jumping in when he was not asked a question, looking for opportunities to interrupt and make his points. If he had kept quiet, the minerals deal would be signed, the United States would be financially invested in Ukraine’s independence, and he would be strategizing with Trump on how to get his territory back during negotiations. Instead, he has alienated the man on whom the fate of his country depends, a man who had just moments earlier been talking about the possibility of sending U.S. peacekeepers to Ukraine.
Even worse was Zelensky’s stubborn refusal to apologize and to fix the breach. During a Fox News interview that evening (which Trump was almost certainly watching), Bret Baier gave Zelensky repeated opportunities to do so. Instead, the Ukrainian president doubled down. “No,” Zelensky replied when asked whether he owed Trump an apology. “I think that we have to be very open and very honest, and I’m not sure that we did something bad.” It was like watching a drowning man who keeps getting thrown a life preserver but refuses to grab it.
Zelensky should have stayed in Washington until the rift was mended. Trump gave him a way out. In a Truth Social post, he said Zelensky “can come back when he is ready for Peace.” Zelensky should have seized that opening and sent Trump a handwritten note expressing his sorrow that the meeting had gone off the rails, regretting the role he played in its demise, and declaring his intention to work with Trump for peace. Instead, he refused the off-ramp Trump offered him, got on his plane and left.
His stubbornness was an asset in February 2022, when he refused to flee Kyiv in the face of advancing Russian forces. But today, it is a liability. Zelensky snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. There was no “ambush.” He was set up for success. All he had to do was smile, thank Trump and the American people and sign the minerals deal. Instead, he handed Putin a victory, empowered anti-Ukraine Republicans, and weakened the hand of those who want to help Ukraine achieve a just and lasting peace.
The most generous explanation of Zelensky’s conduct is that he is exhausted. He has been heroically leading a nation under brutal assault for three years. He regularly visits the front lines, where he sees the carnage Putin has unleashed firsthand. His emotions are running high,and his patience is thin.
But Zelensky does not have the luxury of getting emotional on the world stage. Europe does not have the military capabilities Ukraine needs to survive. Ukraine cannot have a president who is not on speaking terms with the president of the United States.
Right now, Zelensky seems incapable of managing his country’s relations with Trump. Trump can be magnanimous and has made the path to reconciliation clear: If Zelensky apologizes, Trump will invite him back the White House to sign the minerals pact and all will be forgiven. Right now, Zelensky is refusing, insisting he did nothing wrong. That is not sustainable. Either Zelensky needs to apologize and mend the breach, or he needs to step down and allow someone else to do it.