Soon afterwards, Trump released a statement in which he suggested that the two had not signed the minerals agreement.

“I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations,” he said. “I don’t want advantage, I want PEACE. He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace.”

During the public part of the meeting, Trump and Vance took turns to berate Zelenskyy, with Vance accusing him of carrying out “publicity tours” and Trump telling him: “You’re not really in a good position right now.”

At one point Vance demanded: “Have you said thank you once?”

Picking up the theme, Trump told Zelenskyy: “Do you think that it’s respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?”

Trump then delivered Zelenskyy an ultimatum, telling him that Ukraine must either “make a deal or we are out” – suggesting the US could walk away from negotiations and cut off support to Kyiv more than three years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

“Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. We’re trying to solve a problem,” Trump continued. “You’re in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel. We’re going to feel very good … You don’t have the cards right now with us, you’ll start having problems right now.”

Trump also told Zelenskyy that “Putin went through a hell of a lot with me” over the impeachment scandal during his first term in office. “He wants to make a deal,” said Trump. “I don’t know if you can make a deal.”

At one point in the exchange, the Ukrainian ambassador to Washington appeared to be holding her head in her hands.

“The problem is, I’ve empowered you to be a tough guy, and I don’t think he’d be a tough guy without the United States, and your people are very brave,” Trump said. “But you’re either going to make a deal or we’re out, and if we’re out, you’ll fight it out. I don’t think it’s going to be pretty.”

Trump ended the meeting by saying that Zelenskyy was not “acting thankful” and “that’s not a nice thing”.

“This is going to be great television,” he concluded.

Interviewed by CNN after the stunning blowup, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, questioned whether Zelenskyy really wanted peace, and said the Ukrainian leader should apologise after the meeting devolved into what he described as a “fiasco”.

“There was no need for him to go in there and become antagonistic,” Rubio told CNN.

“When you start talking about that aggressively – and the president is a deal-maker, he made deals his entire life – you’re not going to get people to the table,” he said. “And so you start to perceive that maybe Zelenskyy doesn’t want a peace deal. He says he does, but maybe he doesn’t.”

Russian officials reacted with glee to the extraordinary scenes at the White House, while Ukraine’s European allies expressed support for Kyiv.

Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president, said Zelenskiy had got a “solid slap” from Trump in what he described as “a brutal dressing-down in the Oval Office”.

The European foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Europe would step up its support for Ukraine “so that they can continue to fight back the aggressor.” In an indirect rebuke to Trump, she said: “Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge.”

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, praised Zelenskyy. “Your dignity honors the bravery of the Ukrainian people. Be strong, be brave, be fearless,” she posted on X. “We will continue working with you for a just and lasting peace.”

The French president, Emanuel Macron, told reporters: “Russia is the aggressor, and Ukraine is the aggressed people … These are simple things, but they’re good to remember at times like these.”

In a later interview with Fox News, Zelenskyy said the Oval Office exchange with Trump and Vance was “not good for both sides”. Asked to respond to Trump’s claim that Zelenskyy was not interested in peace, he said nobody wanted the three-year war to end more than Ukrainians. But he said Ukraine and Europe needed security guarantees from the US before entering peace talks.

Even if he gave the order to stop fighting, Zelenskyy said “nobody will just stop” because everyone is afraid “Putin will come back tomorrow”.

“We want just and lasting peace,” he added.

Despite the tense dialogue, the Ukrainian leader said he was hopeful that his relationship with Trump could still be salvaged and a minerals deal could move forward.

Before departing to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House that Zelenskyy was “looking for something that I’m not looking for” and again claimed that the Ukrainian leader wanted to “fight, fight, fight”.

“Either we’re going to end it or let him fight it out, and if he fights it out, it’s not going to be pretty because without us, he doesn’t win,” Trump said.

The personal relationship between Trump and Zelenskyy has been strained since Trump’s previous administration, when he was impeached – though not convicted and removed from office – on the grounds that he had pressured Zelenskyy to investigate business dealings involving Joe Biden’s son Hunter in Ukraine.

But Friday marked a true low point in the relationship, with the public blow-up coming as Ukraine is desperate for foreign military aid and international support to keep the country afloat amid its grinding defense from the Russian invasion.

The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser described it as “the most shocking behavior by Trump and Vance I’ve ever seen in the Oval Office. An ambush.”

Zelenskyy arrived in Washington on Friday after several weeks of tense negotiations in which he alleged that the US was pressuring him to sign a deal that it would take “10 generations to pay back”.

Trump has said that he wants the US to be repaid for providing military aid to Ukraine, but commentators have suggested that the deal looks more like a shakedown at Ukraine’s most vulnerable moment.

The deal would provide a general framework for a joint investment fund that will take in revenues from the sale of Ukrainian deposits of graphite, lithium, rare earth metals, and oil and gas. But many of those resources are in areas close to the frontlines, and it is unlikely to provide the hundreds of billions of dollars that the US says it wants to recoup from its military aid to Ukraine.

Neither does it contain specific security guarantees that Ukrainian officials have sought during the negotiations, which have gone back and forth since the deal was first proposed by the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, during a visit to Kyiv earlier this month.

During a meeting with the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, on Thursday, Trump had suggested that the American workers sent to mine Ukraine’s natural resources could serve as a “backstop”, a deterrent to further Russian aggression if a deal is made.

Even as Zelenskyy arrived at the White House, Trump sought to physically dominate the Ukrainian leader, telling reporters that Zelenskyy, who was wearing a black turtleneck, was “all dressed up”. Zelenskyy has not appeared in public in a suit since the Russian full-scale invasion three years ago, preferring to wear military-style clothing instead. Trump has complained about the Ukrainian leader’s style of dress.

Zelenskyy met with US lawmakers earlier on Friday.

“An important visit to the United States,” he wrote of his meetings with a bipartisan delegation from the US Senate. “Our discussions focused on the continued military assistance for Ukraine, relevant legislative initiatives, my meeting with President Trump, efforts to achieve a just and lasting peace, our vision for ending the war, and the importance of robust security guarantees.”