Tempers ran high in the Oval Office of the White House on Friday as a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. Vice-President JD Vance turned chaotic.
The moment was captured by several cameras of American media outlets that were rolling during the meeting.
Zelenskyy left the White House in his motorcade shortly after the meeting wrapped up, and a joint press conference with Trump scheduled for Friday afternoon was cancelled. The Associated Press and Reuters reported that the deal with the U.S. was not signed.
Here’s a transcript of the meeting from when the video recording began.
Zelenskyy: Yes, yes, but after that, he broke the ceasefire. 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, JD, are you asking me about? What do you mean?
Vance: I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country.
Zelenskyy: Yes, but if—
Vance: Mr. President, Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media. Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the president—
Zelenskyy: Have you ever been to Ukraine that you are saying what problems we have?
Vance: I’ve actually watched and seen the stories and I know what happens is you bring people, you bring them on a propaganda tour, Mr. President. Do you disagree that you’ve had problems with bringing people into your military? And do you think that is respectful for—
Zelenskyy: I will answer you—
Vance: To come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to try to prevent the destruction of your country.
Zelenskyy: A lot of questions, let’s start from the beginning. First of all, during the war, everybody has problems, even you. But you have nice ocean and don’t feel now, but you will feel it in the future. God bless, you know. God bless you and bless you.
Trump: You don’t know that. Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. We’re trying to solve a problem. Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel.
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Zelenskyy: I’m not telling you—
Trump: Because you’re in no position to dictate that. You’re in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel. We’re going to feel very good. We’re going to feel very good and very strong. You’re right now not in a very good position. You’ve allowing yourself to be in a very bad position and he [Vance] happens to be right about it.
Zelenskyy: From the very beginning of the war—
Trump: You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards.
Zelenskyy: I’m not playing cards.
Trump: Yeah, you’re playing cards. You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War III. You’re gambling with World War III. And what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country, that’s backed you. Far more than a lot of people said they should have.
Vance: Have you said thank you once, this entire meeting?
Zelenskyy: A lot of times. Even today.
Vance: No, in this entire meeting.
Zelenskyy: Even today.
Vance: You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October. Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who’s trying to save your country.
Zelenskyy: Please. You think that if you will speak very loudly about the war—
Trump: He’s not speaking loudly. He’s not speaking loudly. Your country is in big trouble.
Zelenskyy: Can I answer?
Trump: No, no. You’ve done a lot of talking. Your country is in big trouble.
Zelenskyy: I know.
Trump: You’re not winning. You’re not winning this. You have a damn good chance of coming out, OK? Because of us.
Zelenskyy: Mr. President. We have stayed in our country, staying strong. From the very beginning of the war when being alone. And we are thankful, I said thank you.
Trump: You haven’t been alone. You haven’t been alone. We gave you, through this stupid president, $350 billion. We gave you military equipment. And your men are brave. But they had to use our military. If you didn’t have our military equipment, if you didn’t have our military equipment, this war would have been over in two weeks.
Zelenskyy: In three days, I’ve heard it from Putin. In three days. This is something—
Trump: Maybe less. It’s going to be a very hard thing to do business like this again.
Vance: Just say thank you.
Zelenskyy: I said a lot of times, thank you to the American people.
Vance: Accept that there are disagreements and let’s go litigate those disagreements rather than trying to fight it out in the American media when you’re wrong. We know that you’re wrong.
Trump: Well, you see, I think it’s good for the American people to see what’s going on. I think it’s very important. That’s why I kept this going so long. You have to be thankful. You don’t have the cards. Your people are dying. You’re running low on soldiers. You’re running low on soldiers. It would be a damn good thing… and then you tell us I don’t want a ceasefire. I don’t want a ceasefire. I want to go. And I want this. Look, if you could get a ceasefire right now, I tell you, you take it. So the bullets stop flying and your men stop getting killed.
Zelenskyy: Of course, I want to stop the war.
Trump: But you’re saying you don’t want a ceasefire. I want a ceasefire. Because you’ll get a ceasefire faster—
Zelenskyy: Ask our people about a ceasefire, what they think.
Trump: That wasn’t with me. That was a guy named Biden who is not a smart person. Excuse me, that was with Obama, who gave you sheets and I gave you javelins.
Zelenskyy: Yes.
Trump: I gave you the javelins to take out all those tanks. Obama gave you sheets. In fact, the statement is Obama gave sheets and Trump gave javelins. You got to be more thankful because let me tell you, you don’t have the cards. With us, you have the cards. But without us, you don’t have any cards.