Inside the Oval Office fight that could decide the future of Ukraine

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. WASHINGTON : President Trump said he would take one more question—and then everything fell apart. It had been a relatively polite Oval Office meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was in Washington on a mission to secure the U.S.’s continued support in the effort to end Russia’s three-year-old war.

But Vice President JD Vance interjected. “I have to respond," he said, taking issue with reporters’ questions about Trump’s interactions with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “What makes America a good country is America engaging in diplomacy.

That’s what President Trump is doing," Vance said. Zelensky shot back, laying out Putin’s yearslong campaign to occupy Ukraine. From there, the conversation devolved into a tense and personal argument that played out on television cameras in front of millions of viewers, stunning senior officials in Washington and Kyiv and threatening a U.S.-Ukraine deal that could have laid a pathway for ending the war.

It ended with Trump declaring that the beleaguered nation didn’t want his help reaching a ceasefire—and the U.S. president kicking Zelensky out of the White House, according to American and Ukrainian officials. It was also a rare moment of public tension in the Oval Office, which has for years been the staging ground for tightly choreographed interactions between U.S.

presidents and world leaders. “I think it’s disrespectful to come to the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media," a visibly angry Vance said, before continuing to chide the Ukrainian leader. “Have you said thank you once?" Vance asked.