Trump, Vance and Zelenskyy get in heated exchange over ending Ukraine war at White House

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy got in a heated war of words with 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.

The fiery exchange began after Zelenskyy asked if he could respond to Vance who 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 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 frontlines because you have manpower problems."

"You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict," he added.