Vance promised Zelensky at the White House not to criticize him if he behaves well

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance said that he joked with Volodymyr Zelensky on the eve of the Ukrainian leader’s meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Monday.

Vance spoke about this in an interview with Fox News.

“And so President Zelensky walks into the Oval Office. I was speaking with him and with some senior members of the Ukrainian delegation. I said: ‘Mr. President, as long as you behave yourself, I won’t say anything.’ And he smirked. It was just a little way to lighten the atmosphere,” the vice president recounted.

It should be recalled that back in February, tensions with Zelensky at the White House began with a clash between him and Vance. At the time, the vice president said that to stop the war, it was necessary to talk to both sides, including Russian President Vladimir Putin. In response, Zelensky delivered a speech saying that Putin could not be trusted and that no agreements with him were possible.

This time, during the White House meeting, the only issue that caused disagreement between Trump and Zelensky was the topic of elections in Ukraine. The American president quipped that if the U.S. were at war, elections there too would not be held for years.