Furious Zelenskyy Fires Back at Trump when he Least Expected

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1:41Ben Meiselas:That's O-D-O-O dot com to learn more. Ukraine's President Zelensky is standing on business and pushing back against all this ridiculous talk about Donald Trump getting a Nobel Peace Prize and whether Zelensky should nominate Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize. Zelensky's like, look, maybe I will nominate him when he starts to put pressure on Vladimir Putin, when he institutes secondary sanctions, and when he's actually tough on Putin, then we can have conversations about me nominating him from a Nobel Peace Prize. And Zelensky went on Fox to deliver that message nonetheless. And I think it was a powerful statement by him.

2:24Ben Meiselas:I want you to watch what he said. Let's play this clip. Do you think that President Trump should be nominated next year? Would you do it? I really I think that we will be very happy to nominate President Trump next year Nobel Prize if he will because only him for today only him can so if he will pressure and stop Putin if he will put Putin at the table of dialogue, negotiations if President Trump will stop these killings. And I think that ceasefire, sometimes we understand that ceasefire, it's not really finishing the war, but between us, we understand that ceasefire, this is the biggest step to the final, to finish the war.

3:23But if he will do it, I hope so, and God bless that he can do it. Of course, in this case, we will nominate him and we will be proud to congratulate him. Wonderful.

3:36Ben Meiselas:Now, on that same interview with Fox, Zelensky then gets into the specifics and he talks about the United States needs to apply these secondary sanctions on Russia and that Trump's been saying for a long time he's going to do it. But then it's two weeks, it's three weeks. Trump sends a social media post. I'm very angry. I'm going to do it. But then when it really comes down to it, Trump doesn't do it. And then Putin will make a post and say, oh, I think that the Nobel Peace Prize is rigged against Donald Trump. And then Donald Trump will take that flattery and then allow Putin to continue the atrocities in Ukraine.

4:19Ben Meiselas:Watch what Zelensky says here. I think it's a powerful moment.

4:51And then really, really, Europe decreased 80 percent of their contracts on energy during all this period of war. But it's not enough. I agree with America.

5:01Ben Meiselas:And after that interview, Zelensky made a selfie video of himself where he spoke directly to the world and to the Ukrainian people. And he talked about the effort to defend Ukraine from Russia's attacks. And he says, look, on the actual front lines of the war, Russia's not making any material advances. So that's why Russia's going after Ukraine's energy grid in advance of the winter to try to torture the people in Ukraine. And Zelensky talks about how Ukraine shot down 80 % of the enemy drones, but there were still some direct hits causing a lot of damage. Listen to what Zelensky says here. Let's play this clip.

5:48Mikola, 550 drones, the second wave was missiles accordingly well, and there were ballistic missiles as well, a targeted attack on our infrastructure, primarily energy. What we said on the battlefield, they really cannot demonstrate anything today. It turns out they are lying to the Americans, Europeans, and basically their own society. Therefore, they will attack our energy sector. I'm grateful to all the teams working in the regions. Water has been restored almost everywhere, although it is clear that where there is no electricity yet, there will be issues and challenges with water. Today there were detailed reports from absolutely all energy companies that were present at the meeting, also from government officials.

6:34I think they will manage everything with electricity and it will be restored everywhere. Certainly, it is a challenge. Certainly, air defense is the number one issue. We are working on it.

6:50Ben Meiselas:So then Zelensky posted on social media the following statement. I've just spoken with Donald Trump for the second time in two days, and today's conversation was very productive. Yesterday, we agreed to a set of topics to discuss today, and we covered all the aspects of the situation, defense of life in our country, strengthening our capabilities, and air defense resilience and long-range capabilities. We also discussed many details related to the energy sector. Trump is well-informed about everything that is happening. We agreed to continue our dialogue, and our teams are doing their preparation.

7:27Ben Meiselas:Thank you. So contrast that, though, to what Zelensky posted an hour later about his conversations with French President Emmanuel Macron. He goes, I spoke with President Macron. I'm grateful to France for doing so much to defend life. Do you see the contrast between the two posts already? I am grateful for France for doing so much to defend life. He didn't say that about Trump. Zelensky goes on to say, I informed him about our priority needs, first and foremost air defense systems and missiles. Russia is now taking advantage of the moment, the fact that the Middle East and domestic issues in every country are getting maximum attention.

8:11Ben Meiselas:Russian strikes have become even more vile. We discussed how to counter this. In particular, we are working to expand this important initiative. We also coordinated our contacts with other partners and our diplomatic steps for the coming weeks. We are working to increase pressure on Russia. And again, you notice the difference between those statements. Zelensky then posted the following. Russia is pouncing on the opportunity that global diplomacy's eyes are on the Middle East. Putin escalated the situation at the Zeprecia nuclear power plant. and Russia has also made its attacks on our energy more vicious to compensate for their failure on the ground.

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10:15Ben Meiselas:Ukraine's Prime Minister, Yulia Srevedenko, she says, Russia's propaganda facade, this pretense of being a nation of faith and Christian virtue is nothing but a smokescreen for a murderous and genocidal dictatorship. Behind its icons and sermons stands a regime that bombs churches, kills priests, and hunts children in their mother's arms. Yesterday in Kostinvinka, a Russian guided bomb struck a church where a priest was sheltering a small child. Both were killed. Several others were wounded. The child was only four years old. In recent months, Russia has intensified its campaign of mass murder against our civilian population, unleashing the largest attack since the full-scale invasion began.

10:58Ben Meiselas:The pattern is unmistakable. Homes, churches, hospitals, schools, sanctuaries, all deliberately targeted. The Kremlin's goal is not victory, but extinction to erase life, spirit and freedom from the map of Ukraine. But it will fail. We will strengthen our defenses. We will hold them accountable and never again allow darkness to masquerade as faith. And you can see right here the church that was blown up and lots of dead over the past few days based on Russians bombings. You know, so to me, when I hear these talks from corporate media and state regime media, should Donald Trump get a Nobel Peace Prize?

11:36Ben Meiselas:It's such a ridiculous conversation to be having because once again, you're centering a conversation around one man, Donald Trump, based on a phase one ceasefire in Gaza. A phase one ceasefire is a good thing, right? That's not a bad thing to have a phase one ceasefire, but ultimately you have to see what actually plays out. So much of the discussions about Trump and why the media often gets it wrong, almost always gets it wrong, is they focus on phase one. It's like in a marathon, praising the marathon runner for the first mile. A marathon runner doesn't start to celebrate after mile one and say, look at me, five minute, 30 second mile.

12:17Ben Meiselas:I'm the greatest. I'm the greatest to ever run. Look at me. Look at me. No, you have to have the outcome. And so much of what Trump wants to do, whether it's on trade, domestic, where he lies about $17 trillion of investment and the trade war and, oh, I'm doing all these great things is the idea of wanting all of this praise when the outcome and the conclusion is there. So we need to evaluate things by the conclusion. Trump promised he would end the war in Ukraine on day one, and he has not done that. And look, even Pope Leo XIV made a powerful statement this past weekend where he praised reporters on the ground in Gaza and Ukraine, and he said that we need to stand firm against the ancient art of lying.

13:04Ben Meiselas:Just think about that. The ancient art of lying. Watch as he says it. I want to play it in the language that it's in originally, as opposed to translate it because it's just so powerful this way here. Play this, Clint.

13:30of conflict, violent and diffused, those who fall on the ground are many, victims of war and of the ideology of war, which would be prevented journalists from there. We must not forget them. If we know what happened in Gaza, Ukraine, and in any other land, ensanguinata dalle bombe, lo dobbiamo in buona parte a loro.

14:02Ben Meiselas:So, on the other hand, Donald Trump on Air Force One gave this statement about whether or not Ukraine should be allowed to use these tomahawks. And Trump's response was, I'm going to have to speak to Russia about whether Ukraine can have tomahawks. I mean, it's so pathetic. Here, play this clip. We hope we're going to be able to provide them. You know, our country needs weapons too. We can't give so many weapons that we don't have weapons. You never know what's going to happen. Who knows what's going to happen? But NATO pays us 100 percent for the weapons, and then they send them into Ukraine.

14:38And we talked about the weapons they need, what kind of weapons. They need patriots very badly. They'd like to have tomahawks. That's a step up. They'd like to have tomahawks. We talked about that. And so we'll see. Well, I don't know. I might have to speak to Russia, to be honest with you, about tomahawks. Do they want to have tomahawks going in their direction? I don't think so. I think I might speak to Russia about that, in all fairness. I told that to President Zelensky, because tomahawks are a new step of aggression. Right? You understand that very well. Okay? Are you saying that you will speak to Putin first about tomahawks?

15:21I might talk to him. I might say, look, if this war is not going to get settled, I'm going to send them tomahawks. I may say that the tomahawk is an incredible weapon, very offensive weapon. And honestly, Russia does not need that. They don't need that. Yeah, I might tell them that if the war is not settled, that we may very well. We may not, but we may do it. I think it's appropriate to bring up. Yeah, I want to I want to see the war settled.

15:48Ben Meiselas:because even on Friday, Donald Trump was posting thank you to President Putin because Vladimir Putin said that he thinks that Donald Trump should have got the Nobel Peace Prize. So Trump goes, thank you, President Putin. And then you have the MAGA Republican Congress members like Anna Paulina Luna saying, thank you, Kremlin, for having Donald Trump's back. I mean, that's so pathetic. Thank you to the Kremlin for having his back. The genocidal regime for having his back. What are we talking about? And then the Republican Congress members are inviting Dmitriev, the Russia leader of their sovereign wealth fund, to have a meeting to talk about trade between Russia and the United States and to promote more to promote trade as opposed to, you know, the sanctions taking place.

16:38Ben Meiselas:So I like Zelensky's response because he says, OK, Nobel Peace Prize, there's war going on right here. And Russia is attacking and killing innocent Ukrainians every single day. So let's deal with this war. And notice what Zelensky said also, which is a ceasefire is good, but a ceasefire is a first step. Remember when Donald Trump was asked about his perspective on a two-state solution, for example, in between a free Palestine and Israel, what's your view of it? Remember what Donald Trump said? Trump said, I don't know, you're gonna have to ask the people who did the deal. Just so you hear Donald Trump say it, let me just play the clip for you, let's play it.

17:23What is your view now on a two-state solution today?

17:26Ben Meiselas:I don't have a view, I'm gonna go with what do they agree to? Israel. That's kind of a big deal because what happens after phase one? If phase two doesn't involve a two-state solution with a free Palestine living side-by-side in peace with Israel, what have we accomplished than what has existed for decades and decades and decades there, right? So that's something I'm looking at. And I think that's how it should be covered. Not to say it's, again, it is a good thing that there was a ceasefire. But there's got to be next steps. Well, hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. Thanks for watching.

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