U.K. Pledges To Support Ukraine After Trump Snubs Zelenskyy
Last week, during a press conference in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance excoriated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for not sufficiently showing gratitude to the U.S. The entire affair was shameful, but it could potentially cause European leaders to step up their own support of Ukraine, which would be a positive and perhaps unintended consequence.
Trump hosted reporters Friday to commemorate the signing of a treaty with Zelenskyy to provide further military support. The agreement came more than three years after Russia launched a full-scale invasion that has killed more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians, and more than a decade since Russia seized broad swathes of Ukrainian territory.
But before the deal could take place, the meeting fell apart—seemingly at the instigation of Vance, who interjected that Zelenskyy was “disrespectful” and said, “You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.” This seemed to set off Trump, who charged that Zelenskyy was “gambling with World War III. And what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country…that’s backed you far more than a lot of people said they should have.”
The meeting ended shortly thereafter, with no agreement signed. Trump later posted on Truth Social that Zelenskyy “disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace.”
It’s entirely possible that this was a negotiating tactic, although given that the dustup came at the end of the meeting and only when Vance interjected, it seems more likely Trump was simply reacting in the moment.
The entire episode was disgraceful, as the leader of the world’s most powerful army let himself get spun up about whether a beleaguered nation’s president had sufficiently supplicated himself. On Monday, the New York Post reported that Trump is considering whether to cut off all future aid to Ukraine.
But European leaders have stepped in and reaffirmed their commitments to supporting Ukraine against further Russian aggression. If Europe takes a more active role in facilitating its own defense and that of its neighbors, it could represent an upside to the embarrassing display in the Oval Office.
“You have full backing across the United Kingdom, and we stand with you, with Ukraine, for as long as it may take,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Zelenskyy on Saturday, the day after the ill-fated meeting with Trump.
To date, the U.K. has committed £12.8 billion ($1
Article from Reason.com
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