We take it personally: Ukrainian soldier ‘insulted’ by Trump and Vance comments
A Ukrainian soldier said he felt insulted by Donald Trump’s comments during a fractious meeting between the US President and President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.
Dimko Zhluktenko, a drone pilot for the Ukrainian army, said he and his comrades took offence at Donald Trump accusing Mr Zelensky of not being grateful enough for US military aid.
During the heated clash in the Oval office on Friday, US vice president JD Vance accused the Ukrainian leader of being “disrespectful”, while Mr Trump said he was “gambling with world war three”.
Mr Zhluktenko, 26, from Lviv in western Ukraine, praised Mr Zelensky for representing his country’s interests and for not being a “puppet of the United States”.
“I think the main thing was it was just insulting for us to look at how it developed and how the discussion had no substance,” Mr Zhluktenko told the PA news agency.
“They were not discussing the peace deal or the mineral deal, they only started to mock Zelensky for not wearing a suit or for not being thankful enough.
“We take it personally because through him, they insulted us too.”
He added that his president showed character and showed that “we are not some puppet of the United States or anything”.
Mr Zhluktenko, a software engineer, was travelling the world as a digital nomad with his wife Iryna when Russia launched its full scale invasion in February 2022.
During the first two and a half years, he helped distribute aid throughout the country and claimed he has crowdfunded more than three million US dollars (£2.3 million) since the invasion.
He joined the unmanned systems force last summer, a branch of the armed forces of Ukraine, which specialises in drone warfare.
Mr Zhluktenko, who said that in the last year he had lost many friends and also his uncle in battle, believes Ukraine needs to keep on fighting no matter what.
“I fight for my friends and family who got killed in action by Russia,” he said.
“I lost many friends this year. I also lost my uncle in combat near Pokrovsk.
“I have also visited many of my friends at the military cemetery in Lviv. It’s so unfair.
“No matter what, we will keep fighting because, well, the motivation for this is that if we do not keep the fight going on, then it’s going to be our cities will get destroyed,” he said.
Mr Zhluktenko described the first few months of war as an “enormous period of danger” but, three years on, Ukrainians have become used to the war.
“In the very first months of the invasion, when it was very uncertain whether Ukraine would stand a chance at all, I think there was an enormous period of emergency in the air and in our lives too, an enormous period of danger,” he said.
“I think, as most of the people, we somewhat normalised this and started getting used to bombings, with ballistic missiles, with hand drones.”
He described how Ukrainians have adapted to this “new normal” where “you could be under the Russian ballistic missiles, and then in like 20 minutes, go and grab some really delicious cheap coffee outside”.
Mr Zhluktenko, who is also studying part time for a masters in public policy at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, says he will continue to fight for his country as long as the war continues.
