Ukrainians have rallied behind Volodymyr Zelenskyy after his mauling on Friday in the White House and have accused Donald Trump and the US vice-president, JD Vance, of deliberately and cynically “starting a brawl.” At home, there was widespread support for Ukraine’s president and dismay at his car-crash encounter in the Oval Office, with praise for Zelenskyy’s insistence that a peace deal without security guarantees was meaningless, and that Russia could not be trusted. The bitter fallout continued on Saturday. There were reports that Trump – who claimed Zelenskyy had “disrespected” him and was “not ready for peace” – was planning to cut off all military supplies to Ukraine. Senior Ukrainian officials said that without meaningful security pledges, any ceasefire deal with Moscow would not last. Not everyone in Ukraine agreed with this. Some citizens saw Zelenskyy as making a mistake, particularly as the US seemed to have already decided to cut support to Ukraine. Meanwhile, the Kremlin stepped up its nightly bombardments since talks with Russia over a possible peace settlement began last month, with nine Russian strike drones hitting Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, just hours after the US vote against a resolution condemning Russian aggression.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/01/ukraine-reacts-zelenskyy-clash-trump