President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy have engaged in a very public dispute, raising their voices and interrupting each other, at the start of their meeting in the Oval Office to discuss the future of the war on Friday. The Republican, who was receiving the Ukrainian leader in the White House for the first time, warned the leader of the invaded country: “You don’t hold the cards” in the ongoing negotiations and then accused him directly: “You are gambling with the lives of millions, with the third world war”.

“You’re either going to make a deal or we are out”, declared the American president, in the midst of a heated discussion held in front of the press, something unprecedented in contemporary diplomatic history. “And if we’re out, you’ll fight it out. I don’t think it’s going to be pretty, but you’ll fight it out”, he continued. The hostility between the pair was clear on the faces of both Trump and Zelenskiy and the public clash creates enormous uncertainty regarding the short-term support that Ukraine will receive from the United States. The confrontation also leaves the negotiation of a possible end to the war in the eastern European country in the air, as well as the supposed deal on rare earth minerals which was meant to be signed on Friday and which has now been cancelled along with further meetings and the joint press conference which was scheduled for the afternoon.

The dispute began when Zelenskiy warned against making deals with Russian President Vladimir Putin, recalling that his country had already signed peace agreements with Moscow after Russia occupied Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine, the so-called Minsk agreements, and the neighboring country had breached them. American Vice President J. D. Vance, who was sitting next to Trump, replied that he found it “disrespectful” to come to the Oval Office and fight in front of the media, as to say that Zelenskiy was to blame for Trump’s harsh comments.

The clash was all the more surprising given that Trump, who last week had been very critical, even insulting, of Zelenskiy, in recent days seemed to have softened his stance. He had even assured that he would do everything possible in his negotiations with Moscow to allow Ukraine to recover part of the territory occupied by Russia.

Last week, Trump had lashed out at Ukraine with a string of false accusations, including that Zelenskiy is a “dictator” and that he is responsible for the war. In turn, Zelenskiy accused Trump of living in a “disinformation bubble” of Russian propaganda.

Russia started the war in 2014 with its occupation of the Crimean peninsula. In February 2022, a full-scale invasion of Ukrainian territory began. Zelenskiy was democratically elected president in 2019 by a large majority, and his country has not held elections since the beginning of the war because martial law in force since then expressly prohibits them in times of combat. In contrast, Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Trump has repeatedly praised as “a genius,” has an international arrest warrant for war crimes, has gotten rid of the opposition by force and intimidation, and remains in power through elections that are consistently considered unfair.