Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev mocked European leaders over their efforts to take control of the war in Ukraine.
Medvedev is accusing them of failing to stand up to President Donald Trump during their meeting with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Monday.
The former Russian leader said Europe’s “Coalition of the Willing” failed to “outplay” Trump on negotiations for a Ukrainian peace deal.
“The anti-Russian warmongering Coalition of the Willing failed to outplay @POTUS on his turf,” Medvedev wrote on X.
The “Coalition of the Willing” refers to the group of European leaders backing Ukraine who attended the meeting: French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen were also present.
Medvedev went further, claiming that the European leaders “thanked” and “sucked up” to Trump while failing to extract any concessions from him.
He then turned his fire on Zelensky, calling him “the Kiev clown.”
Medvedev ridiculed Zelensky’s past as a TV entertainer and noted that he finally wore a suit for his meeting at the White House.
He sneered that the only question now is “which tune” Zelensky will play back home “once he’s put on his green military uniform again.”
The White House meeting followed Trump’s historic summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, last Friday.
After that meeting, Trump announced he had spoken directly with Putin about beginning the next steps in a peace process to end the years-long war in Ukraine.
Writing on Truth Social, Trump said he had called Putin to begin “the arrangements for a meeting” with Zelensky, followed by a trilateral summit between Russia, Ukraine, and the United States.
The president also pledged U.S. backing for European security guarantees designed to prevent Moscow from reinvading Ukraine once a settlement is reached.
Earlier in the day, Trump was caught on a hot mic telling Macron that Putin wanted to “find a resolution” to end the conflict.
Russian state media later reported that Putin’s foreign affairs advisor, Yuri Ushakov, confirmed the Russian leader had spoken “in favor” of continuing direct talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations.
The developments highlight Trump’s increasingly direct role in shaping the peace talks, while European leaders appear forced to react.
Medvedev’s taunts, meanwhile, reflect Moscow’s belief that Western unity is cracking under Trump’s negotiating leverage.
The moment also underscores a broader theme of Trump’s second term: forcing NATO and European leaders to the table on America’s terms.
Just weeks earlier, Trump secured NATO’s commitment to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035 and struck a deal for the alliance to pay for U.S. weapons sent to Ukraine.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte publicly credited Trump, saying:
“Without his leadership, without him being reelected President of the United States … we would never, ever, ever have been able to achieve agreement on this.”
Once again, Trump is driving the conversation, compelling allies and even adversaries to acknowledge American leadership on his terms.
Whether it’s NATO defense spending or peace talks in Ukraine, Trump is setting the agenda, and the rest of the world is forced to follow.
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