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helena: a meeting between the leaders of u.s. in ukraine gets heated before it properly begins. the trump administration tells a lot years when ski to leave the white house -- tells volodymyr zelenskyy to leave the white house before talks of a bilateral peace deal with russia. ♪ welcome to world news america. i'm helena humphrey. it was billed as a meeting which would spur efforts to end russia's invasion of ukraine. on friday, talks between u.s. president donald trump and ukraine president volodymyr zelenskyy instead turned into anger in front of reporters and the swift exit of the ukrainian leader from the white house. during the meeting, mr. zelenskyy pushed for u.s. security guarantees against russian aggression, arguing there should be no compromises with russian president vladimir

putin. president trump said kyiv have to make concessions to reach a peace deal and that a cease-fire was fairly close. meeting took a turn when the u.s. president and his vice president clashed with president zelenskyy, angrily telling him to be thank the for u.s. military support while accusing him of gambling with a third world or. >> what kind of diplomacy should the u.s. be involved? what do you mean? >> i am talking about the kind of diplomacy that will end the destruction of your country. mr. president, with respect, i think it is disrespectful for you to come to the oval office and litigate this in front of the media. right now you are forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. you should be thanking the president to try to bring an end to this conflict. >> say what problems we have. >> i have watched and seen the stories, and i know what happens

is you bring people on a propaganda tour. do you disagree that you have had problems bringing people into your military, and do you think it is respect for to come to the oval office of the united states and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country? >> a lot of questions. let's start from the beginning. during the war, everybody has problems, even you, but you have nice ocean and don't feel it now, but you will feel it in the future. pres. trump: you don't know that. don't tell us what we are going to feel. we are trying to solve a problem. don't tell us what we are going to feel. you are in no position to dictate that. you are in no position to dictate what we are going to feel. you are to feel very good. we are going to feel very good and strong. >> you are going to feel influence. pres. trump: you are right now not in a very good position. you have allowed yourself to be in a very bad position. >> from the very beginning of

the war -- pres. trump: you don't have the cards right now. >> we are not playing cards. pres. trump: right now you are playing cards, gambling with the lives of millions of people. you are gambling with world war iii. you are gambling with world war iii. and what you are doing is disrespectful to the country, this country, that has back you far more than a lot of people have said they should have. vp vance: heavy said thank you once during this entire meeting? 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 he was trying to save your country. >> please come up you think if you speak very loudly about the war -- please, you think if you speak very loudly about the war -- pres. trump: your country is in big trouble. you are not winning this.

you have a damn good chance of coming out ok because of us. >> we are saying strong since the beginning of the war. we are thankful. i said thanks in this cabinet. pres. trump: we give you 350 billion dollars, give you military equipment. if you did not have our military equipment, this war would have been over in two weeks. >> in three days, i heard it from putin. pres. trump: may be less. it is going to be a very hard thing to do business like this. vice pres. vance: i'm telling you, just say thank you, except that there are disagreements, and let's go litigate those disagreements rather than trying to fight it out in the american media when you are wrong. we know that you are wrong. pres. trump: i think it is good for the american people to see

what is going on. that is why i kept this going for so long. helena: mr. zelenskyy left the white house early following that exchange. cbs news reported that secretary of state marco rubio and national security advisor mike wallace asked the ukrainians to leave immediately after that meeting. the two leaders were expected to sign a deal that would give ukrainians -- the u.s. access to ukrainian mineral resources, but the white house has confirmed that deal was not signed. start from set on his truth social platform, president zelenskyy -- president trump said on his truth social platform, president zelenskyy is not ready for peace because our involvement gives a big advantage in negotiations. i don't want to vanish, i want peace. he disrespected the united states of america and its cherished oval office. he can come back when ready for peace. president zelenskyy expressed gratitude to the american people after his class with president trump, writing on x, thank you

america, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. thank you potus, congress, and the american people. ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that. with me to discuss this is our state department correspondent, tom bateman. tom, you have covered many visits of world leaders to the oval office. have you ever seen anything play out quite like today? >> absolutely nothing. it was unprecedented. i think it shows that what was already a very vulnerable and precarious position for volodymyr zelenskyy has deteriorated now into an unprecedented golf, a rift between his country and its superpower sponsor up until now, supporting it during this war into utterly unknown territory. i think at the moment, -- i think the moment that clearly rankled mr. trump the most, and when you saw these recriminations flood out of him and jd vance, was the moment at

which they had made the argument that mr. zelenskyy was basically ungrateful for american military assistance. and he was in a weak position and did not have the cards, basically saying they have to play the game according to their rules. what he was suggesting was a kind of rushed cease-fire in which russia has been treated as some sort of equal partner in this, would lead to a sort of moral hazard because it empowers the aggressor in this, the country that invaded his own, and in effect he did not use the word, but he was suggesting that this is basically appeasement. and he said -- suggested if you go down that road, you will feel it too, and that really struck me because he was saying the conflicts will come to you if it continues in this way. mr. trump really could not take that. that was the point at which i think he got his -- his back was got up the most.

we saw this basically humiliation of mr. zelenskyy, of course the far weaker partner in a very vulnerable position, comes here out into an existentially dangerous moment both for himself, his country, and potentially his own life, if you look at the nature of this war. it was an extraordinary, history defining moment that i think has ramifications not just for the security of ukraine and wider europe, but potentially for global security. helena: i know everyone is wrapping their heads around what just happened in the oval office a matter of hours ago, but at this stage, do we have any indications about what this might mean for the u.s. support of ukraine going forward? tom: it is extremely hard to see how tomorrow the -- donald trump turns around and says i was wrong and we are going to keep the missile defense flying back to ukraine. this clearly was played out very publicly.

it did seem to want to escalate. it seems the role that jd vance -- the role of jd vance led to this volatile atmosphere, and terms of the way he was pressing things. they did not sign that agreement today over minerals. the security guarantee was hoped to be attached by mr. zelenskyy. that has not happened. helena: tom, very good to talk to you. thank you. europe has a message of support for president zelenskyy. "you are not alone." in the hours after the oval office meeting, european leaders have been rallying behind ukraine, especially their full backing of kyiv's effort to repel russia's invasion. the top diplomat read on x that europe "will step up our support to ukraine so they can continue to fight back the aggressor. today it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. it is up to us europeans to take this challenge."

similar status of support also came from a string of other u.s. allies, including the leaders of france, germany, and poland. president zelenskyy thanked those leaders on social media. president trump was praised by hungary's prime minister who said the u.s. leader stood for peace, and the former russian president applauded mr. trump, calling president zelenskyy a "insolent pig who got a proper slap down." joining me now is stephen pifer, former u.s. ambassador to ukraine. thank you for being with us. i think today might be what many people describe as unprecedented tension in the oval office. what did you make of what we saw play out publicly? >> it was indeed unprecedented. today was a bad day for ukraine, a good day for moscow, but i would also argue it was a bad day for the united states.

this is the point that president zelenskyy was trying to make, if ukraine loses this war, either on the battlefield or as the result of a shoddy agreement, that is going to mean a bigger russian threat to europe and the united states. that was the point he was trying to make. i also look at that conversation in the oval office and ask myself, why did jd vance intentionally provoke that spat? it was going fairly well until the vice president intervened, almost like he was trying to stir up a fight between president zelenskyy and president trump. helena: with all that in mind, what could this mean for u.s. support to ukraine going forward? do you seriously think that could now be imperiled? steven: it was not a good meeting for u.s. assistance to ukraine. i guess the question in washington would be now, if the passions cool, can people think

this through and really understand that the u.s. assistance going to ukraine was not just to help ukraine, but it was because it was also in america's interest to stop russia and ukraine said that he did not have a greater russia threat a year down the road. but at this point, i also think it makes sense for ukraine and the europeans to be talking about, how do you support ukraine if in fact trump cuts off american assistance, which i believe would be a mistake but may well be possible. helena: the point that president zelenskyy appeared to be making today and has consistently made over these past few years is give us weaponry and we will fight this war, essentially, so it does not spread further. i just wonder whether you think that ukraine can continue to actually fight this war. we are not just talking about a cease-fire deal, but fighting this war without the support of the united states. steven: i think the absence of american support will hurt if

trump decides to end it. european leaders have made clear they will continue to support ukraine, that will help, but also do not underestimate the resilience and the community of ukrainians. back on the eve of the russian invasion in february of 2022, at a point when it was not clear there would be any real support coming from the west, what you saw across the country were ordinary people assembling boxes of molotov cocktails. ukrainians want to be ukraine. do not want to be dominated by russia -- they do not want to be dominated by russia. i think they are prepared to fight, and without u.s. assistance, that becomes much harder for ukraine, and i think that would be detrimental to western and american interests if ukraine loses that fight. helena: you do have to wonder what the kremlin will have been thinking today, what president putin will have been thinking watching all of this unfold. what position do you think this puts russia in?

steven: i think there is jubilation in the kremlin tonight, but i think there has been a lot of happiness bonded to the kremlin for two and a half, three weeks now, because what they have seen from president trump's concession after concession to russia -- from president trump is concession after concession to russia, and the united states has not received a thing in return. go back to two weeks ago, trump said ukraine cannot expect to get its territory back and cannot join nato, by make those kinds of concessions to russian positions -- why make those kinds of concessions to russian positions if you have renegotiating? that makes no sense. and trump breaks with western leaders who have boycotted meetings with putin for three years by saying he is going to meet with peyton. what this does is putin does not respond with other concessions. putin sits back with expectation of getting more, and he has received more. it is not a way to deal with the kremlin, and it is going to, i believe, lead to very negative

outcomes not just for mr. trump's professed desire to broker an end to the russia-ukraine war, but i think it is going to undermine u.s. security unless there is a very serious course correction in washington. helena: steve, very good to have your assessment this evening. thank you. steven: thank you. helena: pointing me live now is our correspondent who was in the oval office today. very good to have you with us. what you witnessed today will go down as a moment of history between these two leaders today. talk to us firstly about the atmosphere in the room. reporter: the atmosphere was surreal. in the beginning, it was cordial, but then it was going as probably planned. it lasted for 50 minutes, and the first 40 to 35 minutes, it

was absolutely normal and settle , and then it went sour -- normal and civil, and then it went sour, very wrong. ukraine and this argument that started with president zelenskyy trying to tell vice president vance that it is not possible to trust putin because he had already violated more than 20 times cease-fire with ukraine since the war started back in 2014. it did not go well, and the argument broke and i could only hear gasps in the room and the press around me was really shocked by what they heard, and to me as a ukrainian journalist my have been coming here for two days to washington to witness something else, a beginning of a new partnership between the u.s. and ukraine. it is just not what had happened. helena: i am curious, when you look now at ukrainian media

reporting on this, what kind of coverage are we seeing from ukrainian reporters reflecting their in the country of what happened today? >> basically the first reaction was shock, and now i must say that the ukrainian press has not really come up with much of a reaction because it is nice right now in ukraine, and the biggest news was the nightly air raid alerts because russia fired ballistics and drones all over ukraine, but right now, what we can see is a pouring of support on tape the ukrainian -- onto the ukrainian government and ensuring the ukrainian society that everything will be ok, that it is not the end of the world.

this is just trying to sugarcoat what just happened, which was very dramatic, and one must not say that ukraine is really ok without the u.s. support. the u.s. support in this war that russia has started against ukraine has been critical to ukraine, and in the beginning of the meeting, when everything seemed normal, president zelenskyy asked for the u.s. to help with licenses to produce missiles in ukraine, to make them cheaper, in order to protect more citizens in ukraine. this is now nowhere to be seen because zelenskyy is not in the white house right now. we do not see how the relationship can be mended. helena: very good to have your

reporting. thank you. let's go now to our ukraine correspondent, james waterhouse. james, we were just discussing the reaction, including from the ukrainian press, but i just wanted -- speaking to ukrainians there, what are people saying? correspondent: if you are watching ukrainian tv tonight, it was reported in quite a straight, measured way. they simply referred to a mineral deal that was not signed, but of course it is the spectacular way things broke down in the oval office which has shocked many, and there are a lot of people expressing their shock online. here in kyiv, the people we spoke to are actually quite proud of the way blood muzoon ski -- volodymyr zelenskyy stood up to a shouting assault by the president and vice president. this is still, nevertheless, a high-stakes visit for ukraine's

leader. this was not about purely minerals, nor money. it was about trying to engage donald trump to try to get into produce -- get him to produce a deeper accord with ukraine that could amount to security pledges that would underpin any future cease-fire. the belief you're fundamentally is that without america's support as a safety net, any cease-fire would barely be worth the paper it is written on, because europe, by its own acknowledgment, is struggling to fill that gap, and ukraine has always needed external help while doing the fighting. he leads ukraine down a perilous path with a destination still unknown, but it could from today lose this war. helena: where does this leave president zelenskyy after we saw the swift exit from the white house, and we understand he will be heading to london before he

returns to ukraine, but when he comes back to the country after such a public heated argument, but with he and his cabinet now be thinking? correspondent: in ukraine, you often get a pattern. the more ukraine comes under attack, whether it is the country or president zelenskyy himself, there is increased unity. even president zelenskyy's most feared political rivals have ceased hostilities to try and rally behind him, because the idea is that if you have a divided kyiv, that plays into russia's hands, but now it is sustaining attacks and insults not just from moscow but washington as well. you have this summit called by keir starmer with such heightened stakes in terms of practical steps they want to take, they might be able to take, as to how to upkeep

security out into the country and how to stand up against russian aggression and police a cease-fire in ukraine, but we are still talking about a war that is raging. it is not over. helena: james, thank you. let's get that reaction and bring in our russian editor, steve rosenberg -- russia editor, steve rosenberg. talk us through what we are hearing from the kremlin. steven: nothing yet. so far there has been no comment from vladimir putin about what happened in the white house. then again, president putin does not need to say anything about what happened in the white house, not right now. he can't afford to allow events to play out. donald trump a little earlier said this is going to be great television. you can imagine him sitting in front the television set and enjoying the spectacle of his fiercest enemy, the leader of the country that vladimir putin invaded three years ago, being

so publicly rebuked by the president of the united states and the vice president of the united states in front of the world's media. quite astonishing. no comment from vladimir putin, but we have comments from the former russian president who is now the deputy head of the russian security council. he wrote on social media that after what happened, he is calling on america to stop military assistance to ukraine. wouldn't the russians just love that? helena: what do you think this tells us about relations between the united states and russia right now? are we witnessing a shift? steven: a seismic shift, absolutely. look at what has happened in the last two weeks or so. it began with that phone call between vladimir putin and donald trump on the 12th of february. america bringing the kremlin

leader back in from the cold. we have seen u.s.-russia talks beginning at a high level. we saw the extraordinary events of the munich security conference with that open schism between america and europe, and now after the dramatic events in the oval office, we see a breakdown in relations between the united states in ukraine. all of this is good news for vladimir putin. the russians are very confident now that they are going to build a new relationship with america, a stronger relationship with the trump administration, and that they are going to get everything that they want in this war against ukraine. helena: are russia editor in moscow. we appreciate your reporting. thank you for watching world news america. for the latest, you can head to

our website as well, bbc.com/news, where we continue to have that live page coverage from our reporters poised across washington, wanted to ukraine, and also in russia for full reaction after that meeting in the oval office between ukrainian president vladimir belinsky and donald trump, which did end abruptly. thank you for your company. i will have more for you very soon. bye for now. narrator: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... bdo, accountants and advisors, funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation, the judy and peter blum kovler foundation, upholding freedom by strengthening democracies at home and abroad. ♪ ♪ usa today calls it "arguably the best bargain in streaming"

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♪ geoff: cody and i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i am amna nawaz. >> you don't have the cards right now. amna: ukrainian president le