Ukrainians rally around Zelensky after Trump meeting

KYIV, Ukraine — Soon after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky left the White House after an astonishing Oval Office blowup with President Trump, Ukrainians rallied around Zelensky as a defender of his country’s interests.

The shouting match that unfolded Friday in the final minutes of the highly anticipated meeting between the two leaders seemed to dash, at least for now, Ukrainian hopes that the U.S. could be locked in as a reliable partner in helping to fend off, and end, Russia’s three-year onslaught.

The exchange, which saw a frustrated Zelensky lectured and berated by Trump and Vice President JD Vance over what they saw as his lack of gratitude for previous U.S. support, delighted officials in Moscow, who saw it as a final breakdown in relations between Washington and the Ukrainian leader.

‘Zelensky fought like a lion’

But many Ukrainians on Friday seemed unfazed by the breach between Zelensky and Trump, expressing a sense that the Ukrainian leader had stood up for their country’s dignity and interests by firmly maintaining his stance in the face of chiding from some of the world’s most powerful men.

Nataliia Serhiienko, 67, a retiree in Kyiv, said she thinks Ukrainians approve of their president’s performance in Washington, “because Zelensky fought like a lion.”

“They had a heated meeting, a very heated conversation,” she said. But Zelensky “was defending Ukraine’s interests.”

The meeting at the White House was meant to produce a bilateral agreement that would establish a joint investment fund for reconstructing Ukraine, a deal that was seen as a potential step toward bringing an end to the war and tying the two countries’ economies together for years to come.

Yet, though Zelensky and his team departed the White House at Trump’s request, the deal went unsigned, and Ukraine’s hopes for securing U.S. security backing seemed further away than ever.

Yet as the Ukrainian leader was set to return to Kyiv empty-handed, his support at home seemed undiminished.

Vitalyna Tarasova, a 43-year-old English teacher in Kyiv and the widow of a Ukrainian soldier, told the Associated Press that Trump and Vance’s treatment of Zelensky amounted to humiliating “all the dead and all these children who have lost their parents” in the war-weary country.

“My husband was a military pilot. He burned alive, his plane was shot down… So yesterday they spat at him, at me, at my children, and it was very painful to watch,” she said.

Regional Ukrainian leader says president ‘held strong’

As two drones struck Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, on Friday night, the head of the region that borders Russia, Oleh Sinegubov, praised Zelensky. He said the president held strong to his insistence that no peace deal could be made without assurances for Ukraine’s security against future Russian aggression.

“Our leader, despite the pressure, stands firm in defending the interests of Ukraine and Ukrainians. … We need only a just peace with security guarantees,” Sinegubov said.

Kyiv resident Artem Vasyliev, 37, said he had seen “complete disrespect” from the U.S. in the Oval Office exchange, despite the fact that Ukraine “was the first country that stood up to Russia.”

“We are striving for democracy, and we are met with total disrespect, toward our warriors, our soldiers, and the people of our country,” said Vasyliev, a native of Russian-occupied Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.

Vasyliev criticized the U.S. president for what he said was a failure to recognize the human cost of Russia’s invasion, saying Trump “doesn’t understand that people are dying, that cities are being destroyed, people are suffering — mothers, children, soldiers.”

“He cannot understand this. He is just a businessman. For him, money is sacred,” he said.

Broad praise for Zelensky on social media

Ukrainian social media was awash in praise for Zelensky late Friday, with officials on the national, regional and local levels chiming in to voice their support for their leader.

The outpouring resembled a recent surge in Ukrainian unity after Trump denigrated Zelensky by making false claims that Ukraine was led by a “dictator” who started the war with Russia — comments that led some of the Ukrainian president’s harshest critics to rally around him.

Oleksandr Prokudin, head of southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, which was mostly occupied by Russia early in the war but later partially retaken by Ukrainian forces, said three years of war had hardened his fellow citizens to the ups and downs of the fight for survival.

“We know what pressure is, on the front lines, in politics, in daily struggle,” Prokudin said. “It has made us stronger. It has made the president stronger. Determination is the force that drives us forward. And I am confident that we will endure this time as well.”

Trump’s administration cast the heated exchange with Zelensky as part of its “America first” policy and derided the Ukrainian leader for a perceived lack of gratitude for U.S. assistance — even though Zelensky thanked the U.S. repeatedly at the Oval Office meeting and afterward on social media.

Zelensky’s backers in Ukraine praised his commitment to acting in Ukraine’s national interest — even if it meant coming into conflict with the president.

“Unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s interests and devotion to his country. This is what we saw today in the United States. Support for the President of Ukraine,” Vice Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba wrote on the messaging app Telegram on Friday.

Not all of Ukraine’s political figures, however, were as full-throated in their praise. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that he hoped “that Ukraine does not lose the support of the United States, which is extremely important to us.”

“Today is not the time for emotions, from either side. We need to find common ground,” Klitschko wrote in a post on Telegram.

In Moscow, gloating over Ukraine’s woes

In Moscow, a resident told the Associated Press that Zelensky “got what he deserved.”

“I think that he’s in for some very, very difficult times” at home, Sergei Boldarev said. “I think the internal attacks on him will intensify.”

Russian state TV described the row between Trump and Zelensky as “a complete failure for Kyiv,” and speculated that Washington would soon stop military aid to Ukraine.

“Scandal, humiliation, shame and disaster — this is how Western journalists describe it. After a squabble in the Oval Office, the Ukrainian delegation was literally kicked out of the White House,” said Olga Armyakova, a presenter on the Rossiya-1 channel.

Spike writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Hanna Arhirova and Illia Novikov contributed to this report.