Ukrainians face new reality after Trump-Zelenskiy clash

By Dan Peleschuk and Yurii Kovalenko

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainians faced a daunting new reality on Saturday following the White House clash between President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and U.S. President Donald Trump which plunged ties between Kyiv and its top military backer to a new low.

Friday's confrontation flared over differing visions of how to end Russia's three-year-old invasion, with Zelenskiy seeking strong security guarantees from a Trump administration that has embraced diplomacy with Vladimir Putin's Russia.

Ukrainians, many of them hardened by three years of war, rallied behind Zelenskiy in defiance but worried about the future of U.S. backing for Kyiv's war effort.

"The Americans don't know the real situation, what's going on here," said Ella Kazantseva, 54, across from a sea of flags in central Kyiv commemorating Ukraine's war dead.

"They don't understand. Everything is beautiful for them."

Kazantseva is from eastern Ukraine, where fighting has been fierce. She was speaking shortly after the air force said it had destroyed more than 100 Russian-launched drones across Ukraine in the latest Russian attack.

In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, where a hospital was damaged overnight and seven people wounded, a local resident who identified himself as Ivan compared Trump's behaviour to the main character in the 1972 gangster film "The Godfather".

"Kiss the ring. If you don't, get out," he said, bundled up in a beige jacket.

MINERALS DEAL NOT SIGNED

Following the spat in Washington, an agreement between Ukraine and the U.S. to jointly develop Ukraine's natural resources - seen as important to peace efforts - was left unsigned and in limbo.

Zelenskiy, before being welcomed by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London on Saturday, struck a conciliatory tone on social media, thanking the U.S. for its support and saying he still hoped to sign the deal.

"Despite the tough dialogue, we remain strategic partners," he wrote on X. "But we need to be honest and direct with each other to truly understand our shared goals."

The spokeswoman for Russia's Foreign Ministry said Zelenskiy's U.S. trip had been a diplomatic failure and showed the Ukrainian leader wanted the war to continue.

Kyiv resident Liudmyla Stetsevych, 47, said she feared her country was being squeezed by larger powers.

"Trump and Putin are dividing up the world - that's what I would say. I don't know what will come of it," she said.

Stetsevych and others interviewed by Reuters expressed hope that Ukraine's allies in Europe would boost political and military support if the U.S. dialled back its own.

European leaders leapt to Zelenskiy's defence after Friday's spat.

"A new era of wickedness has begun," said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Saturday, calling for Germany to release an additional 3 billion euros ($3.1 billion) in aid for Ukraine.

Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Osadchuk said the tone from Trump and Vice President JD Vance was in line with prior rhetoric, and that Kyiv's other Western partners needed to do more.

"Not just a lot, but probably everything will depend on Europe - both for itself and for Ukraine," Osadchuk said.

Former President Petro Poroshenko, Zelenskiy's main domestic political rival, said it was not the time to criticise Zelenskiy but that he hoped the president had a "Plan B".

SUMMIT OF LEADERS

A wider summit of European leaders will be held in London on Sunday to discuss a security backstop to any peace agreement between Moscow and Kyiv.

EU leaders are also expected to meet later next week to discuss an increase in defence spending. On Saturday, NATO chief Mark Rutte told Zelenskiy that he needed to find a way to restore his relationship with Trump.

Ukrainian news outlet European Pravda said Zelenskiy's spat with U.S. leaders, while potentially damaging, sent a powerful signal of how seriously Ukraine takes its sovereignty.

"Regardless where history takes us, the world - including Donald Trump - was convinced that these issues truly matter for Ukraine," it said in a column. 

Political analyst Yevhen Hlibovytsky, director of the Frontier Institute in Kyiv, pointed to prior "false predictions" from outside observers about Ukraine's ability to carry on with limited Western support.

"Does that mean that Ukraine will overperform in the future? Not necessarily," he said. "But, as a rule of thumb, I would say that Ukraine is usually more resilient than it looks from the outside."

(Additional reporting by Taras Garanich, Tom Sims and stringer in Kharkiv; Writing by Dan Peleschuk, Editing by William Maclean and Timothy Heritage)