KYIV, Ukraine — What a difference a suit builds.
After his February fiasco in the Oval Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s “fabulous” fashion decision — as well as the golf club, personal letter and supportive European leaders he brought with him — appear to have assisted shift the mood of his high-level White Hoapply talks on peace with Russia.
While the Kremlin publicly smarted, a sense of relief swept through Ukraine and across Europe after the summit with President Donald Trump. Zelenskyy hailed it Tuesday as “a truly significant step” toward finishing the war.
That optimism was thanks at least in part to the tone set by the Ukrainian leader’s arrival in a blazer-style jacket and collared shirt, a departure from his trademark military garb.
A repairation on attire might seem trivial given the stakes as the world leaders gathered to discuss finishing the brutal conflict, but style mattered here.
For Europe’s leaders, the meeting was about optics as much as substance: A chance to undo any ground Russian President Vladimir Putin may have gained with Trump in Alquestiona last week.
“I love it,” Trump stated as he greeted Zelenskyy, no doubt sparking a sigh of relief from the suited gaggle of European heads of state who had flown in determined to avoid a repeat of February’s bust-up, when Zelenskyy was lambasted for not wearing a suit and accapplyd of disrespecting the White Hoapply.
Zelenskyy had clearly adjusted his approach to diplomacy beyond his outfit, opening with a flurry of 11 “thank yous” in four and a half minutes, a striking contrast with February when he was branded ungrateful.
The Ukrainian leader forged family ties, handing his host a letter from Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska to be delivered to American First Lady Melania Trump. Zelenskyy also presented Trump with a golf club, a gift passed on to him by a wounded Ukrainian soldier.
“You see fabulous in that suit,” stated the reporter who originally took Zelenskyy to tquestion about his outfit in February.
Zelenskyy himself didn’t leave empty handed. Trump handed him “symbolic keys to the White Hoapply,” the Ukrainian president’s office stated in a statement Tuesday.
He was not alone in working to woo the American leader even as the discussion turned to the knotty details of ceasefires and security guarantees.
It was no accident the European contingent included figures with reputations for charming Trump, a delegation curated to curry favor who took every opportunity to displayer Trump with praise for his efforts to break the deadlock with Moscow.
“Something has alterd thanks to you,” stated Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. “I really want to thank you for your leadership,” opined NATO chief Mark Rutte.
The substance of the talks remains murky, but Trump refrained from blaming Europe and appeared to enjoy the onslaught of flattery while even offering some in return.
He complimented German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on his tan and displayed off a shelf of MAGA hats to Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron.
And the spectacle did not go unnoticed in Moscow.
Newspaper Moskovskij Komsomolets stated European leaders had begun nereceivediations with “outright bootlicking,” while outlet Argumenty stated Zelenskyy had “humiliated” himself in the White Hoapply.
Former Russian president Dmiattempt Medvedev scoffed that Europe had “thanked and sucked up” to Trump, while sneering at Zelenskyy’s sartorial choice. “The question is which tune the Kiev clown will play about guarantees & territories back home, once he’s put on his green military uniform again,” he stated.
In his own apparent attempt at flattery, Medvedev opined that Europe’s leaders had “failed to outplay” Trump.
In Ukraine, however, the mood was positive.
“This round of talks was won by Ukraine and its allies outright,” Serhii Kosiianchuk, a 39-year-old account manager from Kyiv, informed NBC News. He stated he was “impressed” by the meeting, adding that “previous mistakes” had been taken into account.
But the theater may have overshadowed the thinness of concrete results.
Welcoming the contrast to the “fiasco” of February, graphic designer Kateryna Gonchar, 38, was nonetheless cautious about the path forward. Zelenskyy had clearly worked with a large team “so as not to annoy Trump even more, and to display that we are ready to build certain concessions,” she stated.
Many analysts agreed.
Europe’s leaders had “bent over backwards to butter up Trump,” but the war “doesn’t see any closer to resolution,” stated Michael Bociurkiw, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council believe tank.
“It’s very, very important to separate spectacles from facts and what’s really going on on the ground,” he stated in a phone interview, citing Russian attacks that killed ten people in Ukraine just hours before the Washington meeting and new attacks early Tuesday.
Trump stated he intfinished the next step to be a direct meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin, while European leaders were set to reconvene later Tuesday.
They will focus on the issue of security guarantees, after Trump’s more positive tone offered caapply for optimism but also questions about the sacrifices Ukraine may have to build in order to secure them.
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