Ukrainian president even took something to please his North American counterpart, but left empty-handed and without much desire to talk about what happened
The president of Ukraine returned to the place where he was humiliated months ago in the eyes of the whole world. He wasn’t dressed the right way, he wasn’t wearing the right attitude, the president and vice president of the United States thought.
Therefore, and with a more concrete objective in mind, Volodymyr Zelensky wore a suit that even pleased Donald Trump and in his pocket he put what the man in charge of the White House likes most: a business.
It is no surprise that 1987 saw the birth of the book “Donald Trump – The Art of Negotiation”. After all, that is where the North American president feels most comfortable, as he himself let slip in this Thursday’s meeting.
Looking for long-range missiles that will force Vladimir Putin to give in, Volodymyr Zelensky took “thousands of drones” with him. The logic is good: Ukraine, which, instigated by the war, became one of the biggest experts in the production of these machines, could receive it.
He gave drones to receive Tomahawks. It gave “thousands of drones” to receive who knows how many Tomahawks, a weapon that the Ukrainian president would say minutes after leaving the White House that it scares Vladimir Putin.
Donald Trump immediately said that receiving Ukrainian drones was something that interested him, but he also made it clear that perhaps this proposal would not be enough to convince him to give up the weapons that can best serve Kiev’s interests in attacking Russia in a profound way.
Disbelieving in the vision of peace that Donald Trump thinks Vladimir Putin has, Volodymyr Zelensky wants to reach the same end by other means, the military. Committed to attacking Russia where it hurts most, in its war machine based on oil and natural gas, Ukraine knows that a long-range weapon like this is more than decisive.
But the White House turned up its nose. It’s just that Volodymyr Zelensky said so clearly: “We need Tomahawks.” To this, Donald Trump responded doubtfully: “Let’s talk about sending Tomahawks to Ukraine. Let’s hope we can end the war without the Tomahawks. We need the Tomahawks and the other things we sent to Ukraine.”
Furthermore, he suggested that he would prefer to be able to end the war without the use of these missiles. In a logic of belief in the end of the conflict, Donald Trump does not seem available, at least in the near future, to give the much-needed authorization.
If these comments made with the cameras still recording left a clear inclination, the face and words – or lack thereof – of Volodymyr Zelensky in the post-meeting were conclusive.
“We talked about long-range missiles, of course, and I don’t want to comment on that,” he said, noting that the United States sees the use of Tomahawks on Russian territory as an escalation scenario.
Always confident, with everything always going well, Donald Trump only said that “it is time to stop the killing”, before leaving an enigmatic message in his Truth Social: “They must stop where they are. Let them both claim victory, let History decide”.
Against the backdrop of apparent disappointment, there is a small detail of Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the United States: the meal menu:
- Crispy artichoke, fennel and lemon vinaigrette salad;
- Roast chicken with sweet potatoes, snow pea fricassee, arugula and rosemary aioli;
- McIntosh apples and caramel with clementine ice cream and blackberry sauce.
A bitter dessert, for sure, that leaves the war in cod waters again, at least until the meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, which has no date, but already has a controversial location chosen.
