Learn Extra: Volodymyr Zelensky Is TIME’s 2022 Particular person of the Yr
As he took his seat within the Oval Workplace, Zelensky positioned the belt on a aspect desk close to his proper elbow, planning to achieve over and hand it to Trump in entrance of the assembled journalists. As an alternative, because the televised briefing started, Zelensky reached for one more considered one of his presents. It was a folder containing a sequence of ugly images, displaying Ukrainian prisoners of struggle after their time in Russian captivity. A few of their our bodies had been grotesquely emaciated. Others confirmed indicators of torture. “That’s robust stuff,” Trump stated, his face leaden, as he took the images from Zelensky and started leafing by them.
These footage, based on some U.S. officers, marked the purpose when the assembly went improper. Had Zelensky supplied the championship belt, the gesture may need lightened the temper. The images had the other impact. They appeared to get Trump’s guard up, as if he had been being blamed for the struggling of these troopers. Nonetheless, even at this time, Zelensky doesn’t remorse his determination to current these photographs. He had been attempting to achieve past Trump’s transactional instincts, past his want for flattery, and enchantment to Trump as a human being. “He has household, family members, kids. He has to really feel the issues that each particular person feels,” Zelensky says. “What I wished to point out had been my values. However then, nicely, the dialog went in one other path.”
