Key points
- Trump-Zelensky clash stuns the world
- Zelensky faces extraordinary dressing down
- US-Ukraine fail to seal minerals deal
MOSCOW: Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Friday said US President Donald Trump showed “restraint” by not hitting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during their shouting match in 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,” she wrote on Telegram.
I think Zelensky’s BIGGEST lie for all his lies is the statement in the White House that the Kyiv regime in 2022 was left alone, without support.
How Trump and Vance restrained themselves and did not smear this scum is a miracle of endurance.
👉https://t.co/WpDlL5CmCF pic.twitter.com/DDHCWO0x5e
— Maria Zakharova (Commentary) (@_MariaZakharova) February 28, 2025
“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”.
“Insolent pig”
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, according to AFP.
The clash
Ukraine’s president had been hoping to leave the White House on Friday after positive talks with Donald Trump, capped with the signing of a minerals deal giving the US a real stake in his country’s future, if not an outright security guarantee, BBC reported.
Instead, Volodymyr Zelensky faced an extraordinary dressing down in front of the world’s media after President Trump and his Vice-President JD Vance demanded that he show more gratitude for years of US support.
The Ukrainian president pushed back at suggestions from his more powerful partners that he should work harder to agree on a ceasefire with Vladimir Putin. They responded that he was being “disrespectful”.
