‘Shameful Day’: How People in Ukraine See the Oval Office Meeting Disaster

It would be an understatement to describe the impact of the 28 February 2025 meeting between Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, US President Donald Trump, and his Vice President J. D. Vance as seismic. 

Three days later, the aftershocks continue to ripple through the corridors of presidential residences, foreign ministries, and defense ministries on both sides of the Atlantic.

What I Hearing in Europe on the Oval Office Disaster Ukraine Meeting 

I have had what feels like an endless telephone marathon with people in Ukraine, Poland, the United Kingdom, France, and here in the US since the meeting broke up and Zelensky was ejected from the White House. 

All of them are professionals in the defense business, and they all support Ukraine. 

Their reflections on how they look upon the wreckage that litters the political landscape following this meeting is heartbreaking.

Shameful Day for America 

One of my colleagues in Ukraine who has expended enormous amounts of effort to support the warfighters and has put himself personally at risk on many occasions. 

It is not uncommon for him to tell me that he is off to the front for a few days to deliver something – vehicles, personnel, equipment – and that he may be out of contact for a few days, and he hopes to make it back in one piece.

Not long after the Zelensky, Trump, and Vance shouting match broke up, he sent me a four-word text message: “Shameful day for America.”

Resentment and Ratings

His sentiment is perfectly aligned with the host of Ukrainians who spoke to the BBC after the meeting, which was almost universally one of resentment. 

One of the Ukrainian MPs told the UK news outlet “we are being punished for being attacked.  It was difficult to watch a president who’s been a victim of Russian aggression [then] being attacked by a leader of the free world.  It’s painful.”

“We are the ones who are suffering,” she continued, “Just this morning, I read that my friend’s son was killed, his second son in this war.”

The Trump-Vance duo also did not receive many compliments for their diplomacy from Ukrainians. “They [Trump and JD Vance] were so rude,” said a 30 year-old Ukrainian man named Andriy.  “They don’t respect the people of Ukraine.”

The attacks on Zelensky have only caused Ukrainians to rally around their president due to create a sense that he – and they – are under siege from Washington as well as from Moscow.

Polls in Ukraine showed that before Trump returned to the presidency in January 2025 the Ukrainian president’s rating was at 52 per cent. 

After Trump stated that the Ukrainian president instead polled at only 4 per cent and also blamed Ukraine for starting the war, Zelensky’s numbers rose immediately to 65 per cent.

Reagan’s War

Several national security officials who served during the Reagan years have also expressed their dismay with how a nation like Ukraine is being treated, rather than having the White House’s full support against the Kremlin, as Poland did in the 1980s.

“It makes me sick what’s going on right now,” Ken Adelman, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, told the UK’s Guardian. “The Trump administration has no regard for the 80 years of Atlantic cooperation and the sovereignty of Ukraine.”

Another voice on the issue came from former Polish President Lech Walęsa, who in the 1980s was the embattled leader of Poland’s Solidarity.

This anti-communist, pro-democracy movement eventually toppled the Soviet-controlled Polish government.

He and a group of 38 former Polish political prisoners incarcerated during the 1980s have signed a letter to Trump, stating he found it offensive that the White House expected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to show respect and gratitude for the military assistance Washington has given Ukraine to defend itself against Russia’s invasion.

“Gratitude is due to the heroic Ukrainian soldiers who shed blood in defense of the values of the free world.  They are the ones who have been dying on the front lines,” they wrote.

“We were also terrified by the fact that the atmosphere in the Oval Office during this conversation reminded us of the one we remember well from interrogations by the Security Service and from the courtrooms in communist courts,” continued the letter.

Russian President Vladimir Putin watches a military parade on Victory Day, which marks the 77th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Red Square in central Moscow, Russia May 9, 2022. Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via REUTERS.

“Prosecutors and judges, commissioned by the omnipotent communist political police, also explained to us that they had all the cards in their hands, and we had none.  They demanded that we cease our activities, arguing that thousands of innocent people were suffering because of us.  They deprived us of freedom and civil rights because we did not agree to cooperate with the authorities and did not show them gratitude.  We are shocked that you treated President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a similar way,” reads one central section of the letter.

About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson 

Reuben F. Johnson is a survivor of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and is now an Expert on Foreign Military Affairs with the Fundacja im. Kazimierza Pułaskiego in Warsaw.  He has been a consultant to the Pentagon, several NATO governments and the Australian government in the fields of defense technology and weapon systems design.  Over the past 30 years he has resided in and reported from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Brazil, the People’s Republic of China and Australia.