The US secretary of state has described the meeting between President Zelenskyy and President Trump as a “fiasco” and questioned whether the Ukrainian leader truly wants peace with Russia, reports Al Jazeera.
“There was no need for him to go in there and become antagonistic,” Rubio said on CNN, hours after Friday’s meeting devolved into a shouting match.
“That active, open undermining of efforts to bring about peace is deeply frustrating for everyone who’s been involved in communications with them leading up to today, and I think he should apologise for wasting our time for a meeting that was going to end the way it did,” he added.
Rubio also criticised Zelenskyy’s tone when talking to both President Trump and Vice President Vance.
“When you start talking about that aggressively – and the president is a deal maker, he made deals his entire life – you’re not going to get people to the table,” he said.
US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky clashed in a heated exchange during a meeting in the White House on Friday. The confrontation took place in the Oval Office, where the two leaders were expected to sign an agreement related to the US control of Ukraine’s mineral resources. However, the agreement failed to materialize due to the tense situation between them.
Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan
