Europe | Friday fiasco 

A disaster in the White House for Volodymyr Zelensky—and for Ukraine 

J.D. Vance set a trap for the Ukrainian president, who declined to flatter Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky meet in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC.
Photograph: Getty Images
|WASHINGTON, DC and KYIV

WHEN VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY arrived at the White House on February 28th the America-Ukrainian relationship was fragile and uncertain. By the time the Ukrainian president left, it was shattered. After a full-blown shouting match in front of the television cameras—with Donald Trump and his vice-president, J.D. Vance, furiously accusing the Ukrainian leader of being ungrateful and of risking a third world war—Mr Zelensky will return home more embattled than ever. Hopes for a peace deal seem more distant than ever.

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