Second Oval Office meeting with Zelenskyy notably different in tone

By Morgan Sweeney
The Center Square

On the heels of an important meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Trump in the Oval Office Monday afternoon.

“It’s an honor to have the president of Ukraine with us,” Trump began. “We’ve had a lot of good discussions, a lot of good talks, and I think progress is being made, very substantial progress.”

The American president’s meeting with Ukraine’s president was observably different from their first Oval Office exchange in February. One of the tensest meetings of Trump’s second term thus far, the winter meeting was marked by interruptions, raised voices, furrowed brows and frustration. Trump and Vice President JD Vance accused Zelenskyy of not showing enough gratitude for American aid and Zelenskyy seemed to imply they were enjoying the luxury of being far from the warfront.

On Monday, Zelenskyy followed Trump’s opening by thanking the Republican for his efforts to help bring an end to the war.

“If I can, first of all, thank you for the invitation and thank you very much for your efforts, personal efforts, to stop killings and stop this war,” Zelenskyy said.

Both Zelenskyy and other European leaders had said back in February that any kind of ceasefire or peace deal with Russia would require security guarantees from both European and American leaders. Trump had been reluctant to make any commitments during that meeting with Zelenskyy, but Monday, Trump clearly affirmed that the U.S. would be a part of the solution.

Trump was asked if Monday was “the end of the road for American support for Ukraine” if Zelenskyy were to refuse to make any concessions that would help bring about the end of the war with Russia. Trump said it wasn’t.

“I can never say that. It’s never the end of the road. People are being killed, and we want to stop that,” Trump said.

Trump also seemed to say he wasn’t entirely ruling out the possibility of American troops on the ground to help keep the peace.

“[European forces] are the first line of defense because they’re there, they’re Europe. But we’re going to help them out also. We’ll be involved,” Trump said.

Whatever American involvement will look like, the American president said he wasn’t interested in a short-term peace.

“We’re going to work with everybody, and we’re going to make sure that if there’s peace, the peace is going to stay long-term… We’re not talking about a two-year peace, and then we end up in this mess again.”

Zelenskyy did not say in the meeting that he was willing to concede any territory to Russia, but he did say that Ukraine supports America’s proposal of finding a “diplomatic way of finishing this war.”