Name: Trump and Ukraine’s Zelensky: A Timeline of Their Rocky Relationship | WSJ
Uploaded: 2025-03-03T21:01:30.000Z
Duration: 6 min 55 s
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Long-simmering tensions between President Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky spilled into public view during a meeting at the White House.

This visit that really put the whole relationship off-kilter was preceded by a series of humiliations for Zelensky.

Zelensky better move fast or he's not going to have a country left.

From a 2019 phone call with Zelensky that led to Trump's first impeachment, to blaming Ukraine for Russia's invasion, here's how Trump's personal relationship with Zelensky could play a role in determining the future of the war in Ukraine.

In April of 2019, Zelensky was elected president of Ukraine and Trump, then in his first term, congratulated him over the phone.

Shortly after that call, Trump ally Rudy Giuliani began pressuring Zelensky to investigate Trump's political rival.

I think it gets some interesting information about Joe Biden from Ukraine.

But when his efforts didn't bear fruit, he more directly said.

The president is surrounded by people who are enemies of the president and people who are, in at least one case, you know, clearly corrupt and involved in this scheme.

That really set off this firestorm that culminated in President Trump calling Zelensky, asking for a favor, and then at the same time suspending vital American military assistance to Ukraine, which already was facing combat with Russian troops in the eastern Donbass region.

Let's not forget that the war in Ukraine began in 2014.

According to a rough transcript from the White House of Trump's July phone call with Zelensky, he asked Zelensky to look into his 2020 political opponent Joe Biden and his son Hunter,

and urged the Ukrainian leader several times to work with Giuliani and former Attorney General Bill Barr.

That phone call went on to become the subject of Trump's impeachment.

The president of Ukraine brought up his country's need for military assistance.

And immediately thereafter, the president of the United States said, I have a favor I want to ask of you.

President Zelensky, have you felt any pressure from President Trump to investigate Joe Biden and Hunter Biden?

And so I think, and you read it, that nobody pushed it, pushed me.

On December 18th, 2019, the House impeached Trump for his dealings with Ukraine.

The impeachment was one of the most traumatic moments of the Trump presidency and perhaps the reason why he lost the 2020 election.

So in a way, he never forgave Zelensky for that episode.

Publicly, Trump and Zelensky managed to keep a polite, if tense, relationship.

But as Trump campaigned in 2024, he pledged to end the war quickly.

And the relationship took a turn after his inauguration, as Trump sought warmer relations with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

No, we had a great call and it lasted for a long time, over an hour.

In early February, Trump and Putin pledged to work together to end the war, marking a softening in U.S. policy toward Moscow.

And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took Ukraine's hope of joining NATO off the table before negotiations even began.

The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement.

It's clear that the Trump administration is interested in opening up to Russia and perhaps removing sanctions and developing economic ties.

And Ukraine is being treated as an obstacle to that.

All this led Zelensky to accuse Trump of living in a Russian disinformation space.

And then Trump fired back by calling Zelensky a dictator.

Zelensky's visit to Washington on February 28th gave the leaders a chance to reset.

They were supposed to sign a mineral deal, which would have been a win-win situation for both parties, allowing Trump to say he had negotiated return payment on the roughly $120 billion in U.S. aid to Kyiv and giving Zelensky a commitment of continued American backing.

But in the Oval Office, that plan got derailed.

What makes America a good country is America engaging in diplomacy.

Zelensky interjected, laying out Putin's history of breaking diplomatic promises and his years-long campaign to occupy Ukraine.

He killed our people and he didn't exchange prisoners.

We signed the exchange of prisoners, but he didn't do it.

What kind of diplomacy, J.D., you are speaking about?

I'm talking about the kind of diplomacy that's going to end the destruction of your country.

Mr. President, Mr. President, with respect, I think it's disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media.

Right now, you don't have the cards, Mr. President.

And what you're doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country.

After Zelensky and his team departed the White House, Trump said,

This is a man that wants to get us signed up and keep fighting.

The fallout sent shockwaves around the world and raised questions about the prospect for peace.

Can Ukraine win this war or hold off Russia without continued U.S. support?

That's why we speak about the future negotiations.

It will be difficult without your support, but we can't lose.

I think Zelensky learned a lesson, what was a pawn in American domestic politics.

That memory also guides his resistance now and his unwillingness.

And so that's why he stood up during this meeting in the Oval Office and kept insisting that Ukraine has its own red lines, that it's not willing to abandon.

It's up to Ukraine to show that it does have its cards, and it's up to its allies in Europe and elsewhere to give Ukraine its cards.

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Trump and Ukraine’s Zelensky: A Timeline of Their Rocky Relationship | WSJ

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