At 9am on Saturday morning, a group of women spread across the busiest street in central Kyiv and stopped traffic to observe a minute of silence. A loudspeaker counted 60 ticks before blaring the opening lines of the national anthem โ โUkraineโs glory and freedom have not yet perishedโ.
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 โ hallmarks of Ukraineโs response in the three years since Russiaโs 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 Zelenskyyโs fiery Oval Office clash with US President Donald Trump and vice-president JD Vance.ย
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 Kyivโs ties with Washington.
โZelenskyy acted correctly. Even if it costs us a lot, this was about dignity,โ said Solomiia Bobrovska, an opposition MP and member of the parliamentary committee on national security and intelligence.
The attacks by Trump and Vance will โ in the short term, at least โ galvanise Ukraineโs troops, a commander in an artillery unit fighting on the eastern frontline told the Financial Times.
โIt was a fucking show and Trump didnโt hide [his disdain]โ for Zelenskyy, he said. โItโs a great reminder of the necessity to rely on ourselves only, with all respect to those who have helped us.โ
In Kyiv, opposition lawmaker Inna Sovsun urged her compatriots to โkeep calmโ. โThis isnโt the worst weโve faced โ though, like any knife in the back, it stings the most when unexpected,โ she said.
Some saw the very public row as a propaganda win for the Kremlin.
โIt seems that President Trump exaggerated when he said that there is a large ocean between Russia and the US,โ Stanislav Aseyev, a Ukrainian writer and former soldier, said in a post on X. โToday, America was closer to Moscow than at any time in history.โ
Across Ukraine, there is a real sense that the country has entered its most perilous phase of the war since Russiaโs attacks on Kyiv in the opening weeks of the campaign, three years ago. Trumpโs accusation that Zelenskyy is โgambling with world war threeโ has deepened the unease.
A government adviser watching the drama unfold at a dinner party in Kyiv on Friday evening described feeling โin dangerโ, fearing that the US presidentโs hostility would lead to the abandonment of Ukraine.ย โTrump humiliated the Ukrainian president,โ the adviser said.
Ukrainians had expected Trump and Zelenskyy to sign a minerals deal โ 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 Zelenskyyโs positions were not fully aligned โ โbut it happened much earlierโ than he had thought.
โConsideringโ.โ.โ.โthe extreme emotionality of both Zelensky and Trump, and the provocative role of JD Vance, this was bound to happen [at some point],โ Fesenko said.
He said that the west was now facing a full-blown โcrisis, both in the relationship between Zelenskyy and Trump and at the interstate levelโ.
The shouting match has fuelled Ukrainiansโ worries about the resilience of US support.
Members of Ukraineโs 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 forcesโ 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 Muskโs SpaceX, which are widely used by Ukraineโs military to communicate and operate drones across the 1,000km frontline. Any weakening of US support would hand Moscow an advantage.
โItโs not just about weapons โ more importantly, the US provides Ukraine with intelligence, including real-time information about Russian missile and drone launches, which we are entirely dependent on,โ said Volodymyr Ariev, an opposition lawmaker and close ally of former president Petro Poroshenko, who has been critical of Zelenskyy.ย
Ariev said Ukraine and the US โneed to find diplomatic solutionsโ to repair the relationship so that โthe Trump administration will maintain the aid already agreedโ.
About $3.85bn of what Congress authorised for additional withdrawals from the Pentagonโs stocks remains to be drawn down, according to Ukrainian and US officials.
โBoth sides are at fault but Ukraine is in a more vulnerable situation,โ Ariev said. โSo we have to put aside all reflections and emotions and concentrate on [getting] results.โ
On Saturday Zelenskyy took to social media to offer thanks to Trump and the US people for their โvitalโ support. But, he emphasised, it was important to be โhonest and directโ, and reiterated his position on a ceasefire.
โAs president Reagan once said, โPeace is not just the absence of warโ,โ Zelenskyy wrote. โWeโre talking about just and lasting peace โ freedom, justice, and human rights for everyone. A ceasefire wonโt work with Putin. He has broken ceasefires 25 times over the past 10 years. A real peace is the only solution.โ
Additional reporting by Fabrice Deprez in Kyiv
