Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has long struck a heroic pose.
He stood firm against a full-scale Russian invasion the Kremlin calculated would take just three days to overrun Kyiv. When the invasion stalled, a top Russian official said that Mr Zelenskyy fled to Poland. He immediately issued a video proving that he was still in the capital, to stay.
His defiance has been inspiring for many lovers of liberty and dignity around the world. But his confrontation with US President Donald Trump and, especially, Vice President JD Vance – acting as White House “attack dog” – in their unprecedented shouting match at the White House on Friday may be remembered as his finest hour.
Since returning to power on January 20, the Trump administration has been seeking to get Mr Zelenskyy to accept a peace agreement effectively on Russia’s terms, formalising or acknowledging – at least through an armistice – Moscow’s annexation of the land it occupies. Moreover, it appears Mr Trump was seeking to strong-arm Mr Zelenskyy into signing over about half of Ukraine’s reserves of valuable minerals and rare earth.
The dispute that degenerated into an unheard-of Oval Office confrontation apparently centres on Mr Zelenskyy’s reasonable insistence that without security guarantees any agreement with Russia will be effectively worthless and the already extortionate mineral deal a pointless handout to the world’s wealthiest country from an embattled, war-torn land.
Mr Trump and Mr Vance have been incorrectly insisting that the US has given more than $500 billion in aid to Ukraine since the conflict began in 2014. The figure is closer to $150-$180 billion. Moreover, they keep telling Americans their country has given far more to Ukraine than European states, which is flatly untrue.
Also read: What did Trump and Vance say to Zelenskyy during their White House fight?
Mr Zelenskyy had appeared willing to accept Mr Trump’s terms to prevent Washington abandoning Kyiv. But apparently the White House was not willing to offer security guarantees. Mr Trump was insisting that Russian President Vladimir Putin would live up to his word because of his warm relations with the current US President. That’s simply not credible.
It is likely Mr Trump and Mr Vance deliberately sought to bully Mr Zelenskyy before television cameras, although White House officials have insisted that this wasn’t the case.
The rare earth and minerals deal, especially without any security guarantees attached, was so outrageous Mr Trump and Mr Vance had to have known that it couldn’t be accepted without promises of protection. It’s almost certain that Mr Vance, in particular, waited for the television cameras to start rolling before berating Mr Zelenskyy.
This kabuki performance is almost certainly intended to rationalise and announce the complete US break with Ukraine and effectively switching over to the Russian side. In his 2022 Ohio Senate campaign, as the war was well under way, Mr Vance frankly declared: “I don’t care what happens to Ukraine.” And, after his father’s election victory last November, Mr Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, taunted Mr Zelenskyy on social media saying he was “about to lose his allowance”.
Yet the most important thing about the White House debacle was not the predictably cynical performances of Mr Trump and Mr Vance. It was the steadfast and heroic defiance of Mr Zelenskyy, who refused to bow before the might of the White House.
Arguably Mr Zelenskyy could not have survived politically in Ukraine if he had capitulated to the Trump administration’s terms. But he has given every appearance of being a principled, determined and heroic fighter, willing to put his own life on the line – like so many of his compatriots – to defend their national independence.
A cut-off of US military support for Ukraine is now overwhelmingly likely. Yet the country will fight on, possibly with a major increase in European and other military support, just as Russia has apparently drawn on thousands of North Korean soldiers and Chinese and Iranian weapons to persist in its own war effort.
It’s no surprise that Mr Vance led the charge against Mr Zelenskyy. Mr Trump is said to still harbour resentment against the Ukrainian leader for resisting his entreaties during his first term to reportedly cook up a fake corruption investigation against then-president Joe Biden and his family, leading to the first of his two impeachments, neither of which were successful in the Senate. But Mr Vance has a more ideological axe to grind.
In his recent trip to Europe, he made clear his support for the far-right AfD – a German political party that many other parties shun as an extremist echo of the Nazis – as well as other extreme right-wing movements on the continent, berating European governments for alleged censorship of resurgent fascist organisations.
Mr Trump is more self-aggrandising rather than ideological, a purveyor of personalised rule and patrimonialism. Mr Vance, by contrast, appears ideologically drawn to this resurgent right-wing western authoritarianism. Those who fear that a model, complete with politicised wealthy oligarchs and disdain for the rule of law, is now being imported into the US should recognise the Vice President is leading the charge.
Meanwhile, Ukraine and Mr Zelenskyy stand alone to fight on against invasion. His willingness to face down both the Russian forces and Mr Trump, in effect simultaneously, is one of the most heroic acts in modern statecraft. Whatever happens to Ukraine, he’s likely to be remembered as a courageous and inspiring leader for freedom fighters and independence movements around the world for decades to come.
