By Mayank Chhaya-
The Oval Office pummeling of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky by President Donald Trump and Vice President J D Vance signals for now an end to any peace deal with Russia and potentially exposes Kyiv to more destruction.
The verbal jousting between Zelensky on one side and Trump and Vance on the other might have made for “great television” as the U.S. president said somewhat flippantly but, more significantly, it handed a massive advantage to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
Putin could not have hoped for a more rewarding outcome for himself from the meeting that was supposed to lead to the signing of a transformative minerals sharing deal between America and Ukraine.
The gloves between the three men came off almost immediately after their interaction with the media began. Vance came across as if he had come prepared to unload on Zelensky who sat seething as the vice president talked over him.
Soon after the diplomatic debacle Trump posted on social media, “I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations. I don’t want advantage, I want PEACE. He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace.”
It is a measure of how concerted the attack on the visiting president was that Senator Lindsey Graham was also deployed by the White House outside the Oval Office after the abruptly ended meeting to say, “e either needs to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with or he needs to change.” Graham said it was clear that Washington can no longer do business with Zelensky.
Vance practically harangued Zelensky during the meeting saying, “I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media. You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.”
“Do you think that it’s respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?” he said.
For his part, Zelensky seemed to hold his ground when he said, “You have a nice ocean and don’t feel it now, but you will feel it in the future.”
That remark enraged Trump, who interrupted Zelensky to say aggressively, “Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. “You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now.”
“I’m not playing cards,” Zelensky replied. “I’m very serious, Mr. President. I’m the president in a war.”
It is possible that as dust settles the two sides will revive negotiations, particularly in the context of sharing Ukraine’s minerals that include titanium, 7% of the global production, lithium, about 3% of the total global reserves. While titanium’s strength-to-weight ratio and resistance to heat make it crucial for aerospace, lithium is crucial for batteries.
There are those who say Ukraine’s rare earth reserves are overestimated and may not be easily mined. That being the case and the Trump administration now avowedly antagonistic Ukraine is staring at a deeply worrying future. Suddenly, pressure is off Putin and has multiplied for Zelensky several folds after the Washington visit.
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