Leaders from Canadian Ukrainian organizations say they are shocked by Friday's clash between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and they are warning this heated exchange should serve as a wake-up call for Canada.
Trump berated Zelenskyy for being “disrespectful” in an Oval Office meeting, then abruptly called off the signing of a minerals deal that Trump said would have moved Ukraine closer to ending its war with Russia.
During the last 10 minutes in the meeting, Trump and U.S. Vice-President JD Vance said Zelenskyy was not being thankful enough for their country's support during Ukraine's fight against Russia's invasion, and accused him of "gambling with World War III."
Ihor Michalchyshyn, CEO of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, said he felt "quite shocked and quite angry" at how Zelenskyy was treated.
"Quite sad about this is the way that a world leader would treat another world leader, especially one who's at war. It was a very surprising and shocking moment for everybody to watch live," Michalchyshyn said.
At one point in the meeting, Zelenskyy asked Vance if he had been to Ukraine. Vance replied that he had seen the stories, and then accused Zelenskyy for bringing people for a "propaganda tour."
Michalchyshyn said he has been to Ukraine twice during the war, and in the most recent visit last spring, he saw bullet holes left in buildings, craters and mass graves on the side of roads, and heard sirens blaring all the time.
"It's not propaganda, and it's not a tour. It's the daily reality for millions of Ukrainians," Michalchyshyn said.
Svitlana Kominko, co-founder of Maple Hope Foundation, a not-for-profit aimed at helping Ukrainians affected by war, said she had trouble sleeping after watching Ukraine's leader being "belittled" by Trump at the Oval Office.
Kominko said she has watched the whole 40-minute video to get a full picture of what happened, and her impression was Zelenskyy was walking into a staged, well-planned ambush.
"This is so disgusting and humiliating to see what they did," Kominko said, with tears in her eyes, adding that Trump and Vance seemed to show no compassion for Zelenskyy.
Kominko said she was disturbed after hearing one of the reporters in the room asking Zelenskyy why he wasn't wearing a suit.
"It's so sad and embarrassing. We have a full room of gentlemen in suits that don't have any sense of humanity left in them. And we had one person without the suit, who is fighting for his country," Kominko said.
But Kominko said she was proud of Zelenskyy for how he handled himself.
"I would have slammed the door if I were him,"
Janice Beck, president of the Vancouver branch of the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians, said she is "horrified by the antagonism" between the two presidents yesterday.
"Frankly, (I'm) shocked myself that the President of the United States would treat another head of state in that manner," Beck said.
Trump told reporters on Friday that Zelenskyy did not look like a man who wanted peace.
"We're looking for peace. We are not looking for somebody that's going to sign up a strong power and then not make peace because they feel emboldened, and that's what I saw happening," Trump said.
Beck said it's obvious that everyone wants peace, but it doesn't seem that Trump wants there to be a peace process.
"As a Ukrainian organization, we definitely want peace in Ukraine," Beck said, "But not in a way that removes Ukraine from the process of negotiating."
Each of the leaders from the Canadian Ukrainian communities said this should be a wake-up call for Canada and other countries about how reliable the U.S. is as an ally.
"We should all be concerned about it," Michalchyshyn said.
Beck agreed, saying if Ukraine can be treated by U.S. this way, none of us can be assured of our rights as independent countries won't be threatened.
"President Trump is joking about 'Canada being a 51st state.' Well, if he will not support a country that's been invaded by its neighbour, how can we be sure that he doesn't plan to invade his neighbour," Beck said.
"It is horrifying and I can't imagine that Canada would ever be actually invaded with troops, but who knows," Beck added.
