Kellogg: Zelenskyy «played to the crowd» during White House meeting

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US Special Representative Keith Kellogg, photo: Vitaliy Nosach, RBC-Ukraine

US Special Representative for Ukraine Keith Kellogg said he tried to prepare Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a meeting with Donald Trump, but the Ukrainian leader «made a mistake», starting «to play to the public».

He said that together with a group of senators, he tried to explain to Volodymyr Zelenskyy how the meeting in the White House would take place, hromadske writes, citing Keith Kellogg's interview with ABC News.

«We told him: «Okay, now we're going to help you understand what it's going to look like when you walk into the Oval Office,» the special envoy recalled.

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According to him, everything was going well until journalists entered the room. At that moment, Volodymyr Zelenskyy «began to play to the public», which, according to Keith Kellogg, was a mistake in communicating with Donald Trump.

He also noted that it was after this incident that Volodymyr Zelenskyy realised that Donald Trump is a completely different politician from Joe Biden.

In addition, Keith Kellogg said that it was Volodymyr Zelenskyy who initiated the recent phone conversation between the leaders, and Donald Trump «generously» agreed to it.

The dispute in the Oval Office

As a reminder, the meeting between President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday, 28 February, was ended early. The conversation between Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance in the White House turned heated.

According to CNN sources, after the public part of the conversation between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy ended, the American president and his advisers went into a separate room. It was then that Donald Trump finally decided that Volodymyr Zelenskyy «was not in the right place to negotiate», and instructed Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz to convey the message that the Ukrainian president should leave.

In turn, after the failure to sign the US subsoil deal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the United States, President Trump and Congress.

In an interview with Fox News, Volodymyr Zelenskyy also said that such disputes are not good for both sides, but the President of Ukraine cannot «change our Ukrainian attitude towards the Russians» and does not want them to continue killing Ukrainians.

A number of European leaders, as well as American politicians, have expressed support for Ukraine. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk addressed Ukrainians and Zelensky on the social media platform X with the following words: «Dear Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian friends, you are not alone».

French President Emmanuel Macron also said that Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine is a state that has been aggressed. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also expressed support for Kyiv, writing: «Ukraine, Spain stands with you». President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen addressed Volodymyr with the following words: «Be strong, be brave, be fearless».

Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said after the argument in the White House that it was time for Europe to unite around Ukraine and strengthen its defence without illusions about «Big Brother».

In his turn, the leader of the «Servant of the People» faction, David Arakhamiia, supported President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after the White House dispute and stressed that the head of state wanted to put an end to the war.

After a spat with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, US President Donald Trump ordered the National Security Staff to check whether Washington could completely or temporarily stop supplying weapons to Ukraine.