Trump cursed, threw away Ukraine maps, said ‘Putin will destroy you’ in meeting with Zelenskyy: Report

US President Donald Trump reportedly coerced Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to accept Russian President Vladimir Putin’s terms for ending the war in a volatile meeting at the White House. Some people familiar with the matter described the meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy as a “shouting match” with Trump “cursing all the time”. 

According to a report in Financial Times, Trump repeatedly echoed Putin’s talking points and asked Zelenskyy to surrender the Donbas region to Moscow. Trump, however, later endorsed a freeze of the front lines.

The meeting came amid a fresh push by Trump to end Russia’s war on Ukraine, after the successful ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. 

The report quoted an European official who said Trump told Zelenskyy that Putin had told him the conflict was a “special operation, not even a war”. Trump told Zelenskyy that he was losing the war. “If Putin wants it, he will destroy you,” Trump reportedly told Zelenskyy.

At one point in the acrimonious meeting, Trump threw away Ukraine’s maps of the battlefield to one side. An official told the financial daily that Trump was sick of seeing the map of the frontline of Ukraine again and again. “This red line, I don’t even know where this is. I’ve never been there,” Trump said, according to the official.

In a sharp contrast to his earlier statements, Trump said that the Russian economy was doing great. 

The meeting mirrored a similar interaction with Zelenskyy in the White House, in which Trump and US Vice President JD Vance lashed out on the Ukrainian President for what they perceived as a lack of gratitude towards the US. 

In this meeting, Zelenskyy and his team went to the White House to persuade Trump to supply them with long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles. However, Trump declined to do so.