The meeting between Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyj and US Ditto Donald Trump in the Oval Room in February degenerated into a hot word.
Afterwards, several people in the Trump administration have demanded an apology from Zelenskyj. The Ukrainian leader has in turn found that the incident was “regrettable”.
Now he is commenting on the brawl in an interview with the magazine Time. He points out that the Ukrainian people stand up united for “our sense of dignity, freedom and democracy”.
The hope for the meeting was that the United States would show that they had continued to have Ukraine’s back.
– But at that moment there was a feeling that they were not allies at all, or acted as an ally. In that conversation, I defended Ukraine’s dignity, Zelenskyj told Time.
Showed pictures of prisoners of war
Zelenskyj had the heavyweight boxer Oleksandr Usyks master belt as a gift to Donald Trump. But before handing over the gift, he showed pictures of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
It was at the point that the conversation began to perform, says US sources of government for Time. However, Zelenskyj does not regret the decision to showcase the images.
The purpose was to appeal to Trump as a fellow human being.
– He has a family, loved ones, children. He must feel things that all other people feel. I wanted to show off my values. But then the conversation took a different direction, says Zelenskyj.
Resumed the calls
Following the notable word riot, the United States and Ukraine have resumed discussions about the war. Yesterday, Sunday, representatives of the parties in Jidda met in Saudi Arabia.
This week, Trump and Zelenskyj also spoke with each other over the phone. Trump described the conversation as very good.
“We are on the right track,” he wrote on social media.