Russia on Saturday hit out at Volodymyr Zelensky after the Ukrainian president clashed with US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance at the White House.
“I think Zelensky’s biggest lie of all his lies was his assertion in the White House that the Kyiv regime in 2022 was alone, without support,” Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Telegram.
“How Trump and Vance held back from hitting that scumbag is a miracle of restraint,” she said, adding that Zelensky was “biting the hand that feeds him”.
She accused Zelensky of being “unpleasant with everyone”.
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Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is now deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, called Zelensky an “insolent pig” who had received “a proper slap down in the Oval Office”.
Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, called the heated confrontation between Trump and Zelensky “historic”.
Dmitriev was one of Moscow’s negotiators in the Russian-American talks held on February 18 in Saudi Arabia — the first since Russia began its Ukraine offensive in 2022.
Konstantin Kosachyov, deputy chairman of Russia’s upper house of parliament, said the bruising encounter had found out Zelenskiy and revealed him in his true colours.
“Zelenskiy lost this round with a deafening rattle. And he will have to crawl to the next one on his knees,” Kosachyov wrote on Telegram.
Trump-Zelensky White House showdown
A heated verbal showdown ensued at the Oval Office, with Trump sending Zelensky out of the White House, AFP reported.
The abrupt exit cut short what was meant to be a day of Ukraine-US diplomacy, meaning that Zelensky left without a deal for joint development of his country’s minerals resources that was to be part of a post-war recovery in a potential US-brokered truce.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance shouted at Zelensky, accusing him of not being “thankful” for US help in the three-year war against Russian invasion.
ALSO READ: Zelenskyy-Trump Oval Office clash: How world leaders react to tense exchange
Telling Zelensky that without US assistance, Ukraine would have been conquered by Russia, Trump said Zelensky was in no position to negotiate.
“You don’t have the cards right now. You’re either going to make a deal or we’re out, and if we’re out, you’ll fight it out and I don’t think it’s going to be pretty,” Trump told the Ukrainian president.
Zelensky departed shortly after, with Trump posting on social media that “he can come back when he is ready for peace.”
The minerals deal was not signed, and a joint press conference was canceled. US media reported that Zelensky had been told to leave by senior Trump officials.
(With agency inputs)
