A spat between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has come as a windfall for the Kremlin, raising Moscow’s hopes for a halt in U.S. assistance to Kyiv even as Russian troops seek to extend their gains in Ukraine.
The disastrous Oval Office meeting on Friday that exploded in acrimony when Trump and Vice President JD Vance accused Zelenskyy of refusing to negotiate peace and berated him for being ingrateful for U.S. support so far has cast doubts over the future of U.S.-Ukrainian relations.
The Kremlin was quick to cast the White House encounter as a proof of Zelenskyy’s reluctance to negotiate an end to the three-year conflict.
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“What happened in the White House on Friday certainly showed how difficult it will be to get on the path to a Ukrainian settlement,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “The Kyiv regime and Zelenskyy do not want peace, they want the war to continue.”
He claimed that the White House blowup has proven President Vladimir Putin’s statements about Kyiv’s refusal to hold peace talks. Putin, who sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, has declared his openness for peace but demanded that Ukraine abandon its bid to join NATO and withdraw its troops from the four regions that Russia illegally annexed in 2022 but never fully captured.
“President Putin was right when he said that despite the openness of the Russian side to the negotiation process, these good intentions run into the unwillingness of the Kyiv regime to maintain such dynamics,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. “We saw this to the full extent in Washington. In this situation, of course, Washington’s efforts and Moscow’s readiness alone will clearly not be enough, a crucial element is missing.”
Denigrating Zelenskyy
Peskov said that Putin watched the “unprecedented” White House encounter and “took what happened into account.”
“As a minimum, Zelenskyy has shown an utter lack of diplomatic skills,” Peskov told reporters.
Commenting on the Ukrainian leader’s refusal to recognize any loss of territory, Peskov said it reflected his reluctance to recognize the battlefield situation. “You have to be blind not to see it,” he declared.
Other Russian officials were even less diplomatic.
Dmitry Medvedev, a deputy head of Russia’s Security Council chaired by Putin, relished what he called a “fierce scolding” and a “slap in the face” for Zelenskyy and voiced hope for a quick end to U.S. military aid for Ukraine.
Pro-Kremlin media and commentators derided Zelenskyy’s attire and his negotiating style and described the meeting as a disaster for Ukraine.
“Trump wiped his feet on Zelenskyy and Ukraine like a doormat,” commented hardline ideologue Alexander Dugin. “Zelenskyy was thrown out of the White House like a garbage alley cat,” gloated pro-Kremlin military analyst Igor Korotchenko.
Russia’s flagship Sunday news show dedicated more than a third of its airtime — almost an hour — to the Trump-Zelenskyy clash, with anchor Dmitry Kiselyov mocking Zelenskyy for sporting his usual military-style garb at the White House and saying the Ukrainian leader “looked like a loser” and “made a scene” in the Oval Office.
Assailing Europe
Kiselyov blasted EU leaders for seeking to prolong the fighting and suggested that a rift between the U.S. and its European allies could potentially erode the influence of NATO and the EU on the global arena.
“Right now everything is being decided within a new big triangle — Russia-China-the United States. It is in this triangle where a new world order will be developed,” Kiselyov mused, dismissing Sunday’s summit of European allies in London as “almost clandestine” and pointless.
Commenting on the London summit, Peskov said it reflected the European reluctance to negotiate peace.
“There is a group of countries that represent the party of war, which are declaring their readiness to continue to support Ukraine in a sense of supporting the war and ensuring the continuation of the hostilities,” Peskov said. “There were statements made about the need to urgently provide an increased level of funding for Ukraine – clearly not for a peace plan but for the continuation of military operations.”
He added that European leaders will face a daunting task of trying to mend a rift between Washington and Kyiv.
“It’s clear that someone will have to make a considerable effort in terms of dialogue with Washington in order to somehow neutralize the probably unpleasant aftertaste that probably remained in the White House after talking with Zelenskyy,” he said.
Medvedev, a former liberal-leaning Russian president who has become one of the most hawkish Kremlin officials, denounced the London summit as “the anti-Trump Russophobic coven,” declaring that “they want to continue the war till the last Ukrainian!”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov assailed Kyiv’s European allies for defying Trump’s push for peace and described Europe as a birthplace of conflict. “During the past 500 years, all tragedies of the world originated in Europe or were linked to European politics,” he said in televised comments.
Lavrov, who has previously warned that Moscow wouldn’t accept peacekeepers from any NATO members in case of a potential peace deal, has dismissed French and British proposals to deploy such a force as “impudent.” “This plan for the deployment of ‘peacekeepers’ to Ukraine is the continuation of efforts to incite the Kyiv regime to wage a war against us,” he said.
Russia to press on with military action
Peskov emphasized that after Trump’s call with Putin last month and U.S.-Russian talk in Saudi Arabia, Moscow will continue negotiations with Washington on normalizing ties, focusing on efforts to ensure the normal operations of the embassies after years of expulsions of diplomats.
“At the same time, the Russian side will continue the special military operation to achieve the goals that have been set from the start,” Peskov said, using the Kremlin’s term for the war in Ukraine.
Many commentators in Moscow said that Europe wouldn’t be able to provide Ukraine with enough weapons if the U.S. cuts military aid.
“Europe says it will never abandon Ukraine, but it lacks resources to replace America,” Fyodor Lukyanov, the head of Moscow-based Council for Foreign and Defense Policies, observed in an analysis.
“An attempt at peaceful settlement has been thwarted,” Lukyanov said. “It paves the way for the next stage of using force, probably in a tougher way.”
