Drivers and passengers stepped out of their cars, standing in quiet tribute as the music echoed through the street.

It was a striking display of respect, resilience and defiance — hallmarks of Ukraine’s response in the three years since Russia’s full-blown invasion triggered the worst conflict in Europe since the second world war.

And it seemed to take on special meaning the day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s fiery Oval Office clash with US President Donald Trump and vice-president JD Vance. 

Ukrainians, hardened by repeated Russian attacks and quick to rally in the face of foreign threats, are throwing their support behind their leader after the shocking meeting which has greatly strained Kyiv’s ties with Washington.

“Zelenskyy acted correctly. Even if it costs us a lot, this was about dignity,” said Solomiia Bobrovska, an opposition MP and member of the parliamentary committee on national security and intelligence.

The attacks by Trump and Vance will — in the short term, at least — galvanise Ukraine’s troops, a commander in an artillery unit fighting on the eastern frontline told the Financial Times.

“It was a fucking show and Trump didn’t hide [his disdain]” for Zelenskyy, he said. “It’s a great reminder of the necessity to rely on ourselves only, with all respect to those who have helped us.”

In Kyiv, opposition lawmaker Inna Sovsun urged her compatriots to “keep calm”. “This isn’t the worst we’ve faced — though, like any knife in the back, it stings the most when unexpected,” she said.

Some saw the very public row as a propaganda win for the Kremlin.

“It seems that President Trump exaggerated when he said that there is a large ocean between Russia and the US,” Stanislav Aseyev, a Ukrainian writer and former soldier, said in a post on X. “Today, America was closer to Moscow than at any time in history.”

Across Ukraine, there is a real sense that the country has entered its most perilous phase of the war since Russia’s attacks on Kyiv in the opening weeks of the campaign, three years ago. Trump’s accusation that Zelenskyy is “gambling with world war three” has deepened the unease.

A government adviser watching the drama unfold at a dinner party in Kyiv on Friday evening described feeling “in danger”, fearing that the US president’s hostility would lead to the abandonment of Ukraine. “Trump humiliated the Ukrainian president,” the adviser said.

Ukrainians had expected Trump and Zelenskyy to sign a minerals deal — a step Zelenskyy sees as crucial to securing US support for future ceasefire guarantees. But a person present with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office told the FT that the deal was left unsigned.

Volodymyr Fesenko, director of the Penta centre for political studies, a Kyiv think-tank, said he had expected tensions to flare during future peace negotiations, given that Trump and Zelenskyy’s positions were not fully aligned — “but it happened much earlier” than he had thought.

“Considering . . . the extreme emotionality of both Zelensky and Trump, and the provocative role of JD Vance, this was bound to happen [at some point],” Fesenko said.

He said that the west was now facing a full-blown “crisis, both in the relationship between Zelenskyy and Trump and at the interstate level”.

The shouting match has fuelled Ukrainians’ worries about the resilience of US support.

Members of Ukraine’s parliament and soldiers fighting on the frontline said that they fear recriminations from the US, which has provided $66bn in military assistance over the past three years.

Trump could cut the security assistance which Ukraine needs to hold back Russian forces’ advances on the battlefields of eastern Ukraine, and to shoot down the missiles and drones that attack its critical infrastructure on a daily basis.

It could also cut Starlink connections provided by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which are widely used by Ukraine’s military to communicate and operate drones across the 1,000km frontline. Any weakening of US support would hand Moscow an advantage.

“It’s not just about weapons — more importantly, the US provides Ukraine with intelligence, including real-time information about Russian missile and drone launches, which we are entirely dependent on,” said Volodymyr Ariev, an opposition lawmaker and close ally of former president Petro Poroshenko, who has been critical of Zelenskyy. 

Ariev said Ukraine and the US “need to find diplomatic solutions” to repair the relationship so that “the Trump administration will maintain the aid already agreed”.

About $3.85bn of what Congress authorised for additional withdrawals from the Pentagon’s stocks remains to be drawn down, according to Ukrainian and US officials.

“Both sides are at fault but Ukraine is in a more vulnerable situation,” Ariev said. “So we have to put aside all reflections and emotions and concentrate on [getting] results.”

On Saturday Zelenskyy took to social media to offer thanks to Trump and the US people for their “vital” support. But, he emphasised, it was important to be “honest and direct”, and reiterated his position on a ceasefire.

“As president Reagan once said, ‘Peace is not just the absence of war’,” Zelenskyy wrote. “We’re talking about just and lasting peace — freedom, justice, and human rights for everyone. A ceasefire won’t work with Putin. He has broken ceasefires 25 times over the past 10 years. A real peace is the only solution.”

Additional reporting by Fabrice Deprez in Kyiv

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US President Donald Trump has claimed he is “in the middle” of Russia and Ukraine as he greeted Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House for talks on ending the conflict, adding that he was “for both Ukraine and Russia”.

Trump said the Ukrainian president “will have to make compromises”, adding that Kyiv “will not go back to fighting” if a peace deal is struck, according to early media reports from their meeting.

Zelenskyy will use his visit to try to secure a seat at the negotiating table. Trump has blindsided Kyiv and other European capitals by launching direct talks with Putin over ending the conflict.

The leaders are also set to sign a minerals deal that would set up a joint US-Ukrainian “investment fund” that would receive 50 per cent of all revenues from the “future monetisation” of natural resources owned by Kyiv.

The text lacks explicit US security guarantees that Zelenskyy had sought, but Trump has said the presence of American workers and economic interests in Ukraine would be a sufficient deterrent to possible Russian aggression.

On Friday, Trump described the deal as “very fair”.

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