WASHINGTON, March 1 (Bernama-Anadolu) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy got in a heated war of words with United States (US) President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance Friday as the future of a mineral rights deal appeared in flux during a critical White House meeting, Anadolu Ajansi (AA) reported.
"You're gambling with World War Three, and what you're doing is very disrespectful to this country that's backed you far more than a lot of people say they should," Trump fumed as he hosted Zelenskyy in the Oval Office.
"Have you said 'thank you' once?" Vance told Zelenskyy. "Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the President who's trying to save your country."
Trump sounded off on Zelenskyy, telling him, "Your country is in big trouble," which the Ukrainian president acknowledged, saying, "I know."
"You've done a lot of talking. Your country is in big trouble. You're not winning this. You have a damn good chance of coming out okay because of us," Trump said. "You're not in a good position. You don't have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards."
"We're not playing cards," responded Zelenskyy.
The fiery exchange began after Zelenskyy asked if he could respond to Vance after the US vice President sought to defend Trump's engagement with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying, "What makes America a good country is America engaging in diplomacy. That's what President Trump's doing."
"During 2015, nobody stopped him. He just occupied then, too. He killed people. You know," Zelenskyy said of Putin, prompting Trump to say, "I was not here."
"You know that we have conversations with him, a lot of conversations, my bilateral conversation, and we signed with him, me, like a new president, in 2019 I signed with him, the deal, I signed with him, Macron and Merkel, we signed ceasefire, ceasefire. All of them told me that he will never go. We signed with him a gas contract. Gas contract, yes, but after that, he broke the ceasefire. He killed our people. He didn't exchange prisoners. We signed the exchange, but he didn't do it. What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are speaking about?" Zelenskyy added.
"Mr President, with respect. I think it's disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media," Vance replied, saying that "right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems."
"You should be thanking the President for trying to bring an end to this conflict," he added.
-- BERNAMA-ANADOLU
