- Friday Presidnet Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy got into a verbal altercation.
- Zelenskyy left without signing the Mineral Deal.
- Ukrainian immigrant Vitaliy Onishchuk asks Trump to "Have mercy" on innocent Ukranian citizens.
- Creighton Law professor believes this was Trump's attempt to reset negotiations
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
"You're gambling with the lives of millions of people. You're gambling with World War III," said President Donald Trump.
Watch Hannah's story:
Many people across the nation were stunned by an argument between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy that occurred in the Oval Office Friday. KMTV reporter Hannah McIlree sat down with a Ukrainian immigrant who was hoping for a resolution quick.
"They want Ukraine to be wiped out as a national entity," said Vitaliy Onishchuk.
Oshnik and his seven siblings came to the United States from Ukraine as refugees in 2003, he still has friends and family in Ukraine, they're about the same distance Omaha is from Chicago, to the front lines.
"They have air kind of air defense, sirens. One is Russian, ballistic missiles flying over Ukraine they still have those sirens in the middle of the night they have to go to shelter," said Onishchuk.
Onishchuk says he thinks the argument was one big miscommunication based on a language barrier between Trump and Zelensky. He hopes what he says is a misunderstanding doesn't lead to more devastation in his home country.
"Have mercy on the people who are kind of and slaves of the situation between both of the two.I mean, it would be very sad for me to see Russia conquer more much more Ukraine because Zelenskyy was mis-communicating," said Oshnik.
I wanted to know more about what the implications of Trump removing Zelensky from the White House could be for our neighbors so I met with Michael Kelly, an international law professor at Creighton, he says Europe needs to make a deal absent to United States.
"They just need to jettison their dependence upon the United States, or at least waiting for the United States to take the lead, because that's not going to happen. The Europeans have several things. I mean, they have their own troops. They can place European troops around cities in Ukraine, Kiev, Odessa, Lviv, the big cities, the Russians will stop probably bombing those cities for fear of hitting European troops," said Kelly.
Unlike Onishchuk, Kelly believes the conflict began because Zelenskyy was not overly appreciative of the aid provided by United States.
"It was when Zelenskyy refused to kiss the ring. It was when he refused to You know, lay himself out in front of them,, and thank them overtly, over and over again. So, so yeah, that was really a trigger for Trump and Vance, and everybody knew this was a trigger for Trump. When they got really animated was when they didn't think he was respectful enough," said Kelly.
While at the White House Zelenskyy and Trump were supposed to discuss a mineral deal, that would give the United States access to resource that would help build AI technology. However, after the disagreement, Zelenskyy was asked to leave.
Had they continued to negotiations, Kelly says, decisions made by Zelenskyy could be under duress and therefore not legally binding.
"Trump going to to DEFCON 3 and talking about provoking a nuclear war and you know telling Zelinsky, if you don't sign we're out. Which is basically a threat. In in the law that's known as coercion and so any any agreement that comes out of coercion that's signed under duress is invalid legally," said Kelly.
Kelly said Congress will have a big influence on how the United States proceed with peace efforts between Russia and Ukraine. So I contacted congressman Don Bacon, he sent the following statement:
"A bad day for America's foreign policy. Ukraine wants independence, free markets and rule of law. It wants to be part of the West. Russia hates us and our Western values. We should be clear that we stand for freedom," Rep. Bacon.
KMTV contacted Senator Deb Fisher who said in a statement:
“In the past, I have supported U.S. aid, support, and goodwill to Ukraine. I was optimistic for the Oval Office meeting today, but the tenor of Zelenskyy's comments to President Trump were inappropriate and disrespectful. He needs to apologize, recognize the contributions of our country to Ukraine, and take steps to repair his relationship with President Trump,” said Senator Fischer.
We also reached out to Pete Ricketts office and have not received a response.
