On a horizon where drones and airstrikes have killed 47 civilians in Ukraine in the past 10 days, superlatives have rained down: the most significant moment in the war since the Russian invasion; the ugliest clash of personalities – between a 48-year-old comedian turned wartime leader and a seventy-year-old billionaire turned US president; the most significant turning point in European history since 1989 or even 1945.

After Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky found himself berated for a lack of gratitude on live television by US President Donald Trump and his Vice President JD Vance on Friday, Ukraine seemed immediately unsure whether to be furious with their treatment, after their collective survival of three years of Russian bombing and brutality at the hands of wealthy American elites.

Ukrainian military channels on Telegram said they would rather die standing than beg on their knees. Kiev officials expressed solidarity. But the rug under their feet suddenly disappeared, reports CNN.

There is “nothing we can do to fix this,” a senior U.S. official told me — adding that the fix must come from Zelensky. Senator Lindsey Graham, R-N.C., said Zelensky must fix it quickly or leave. American politicians are used to their words having an outsized impact, but on Friday they overstepped established European safety norms and caused a continent, barely recovering from the horrific crash of the past 10 days, to suddenly check its seatbelts.

Volodymyr Zelensky’s task on Friday was simple and almost complete, a draft agreement on minerals awaiting signature. The mood at his meeting was pleasant enough, not even marred by his harsh rhetoric toward Putin. The wartime leader’s wardrobe choices, a black long-sleeved shirt that he always wears, may not have pleased Trump, a U.S. official said, but it did not overturn the apple cart.

When Trump told him he had “no cards,” Zelensky replied, “I’m not playing cards.” Ukrainians are not playing cards, but they are dying at a rate that is lower than the fantastic figures Trump keeps mentioning, albeit at a rather terrifying rate of hundreds per week, because they too want peace, reports KosovaPress.

This is the terrible divide between the parties in the Oval Office. On one side, a place where the facts of war are personal as they involve relatives and friends who never return home and homes they never will. On the other, America’s right wing felt scorned because its help in defeating a decades-old adversary at no cost to American life was not received with sufficient gratitude.

"You're not grateful at all. And that's not a good thing," Trump said, as if the cost of tens of thousands of Ukrainian lives wasn't somehow a token of appreciation.

Volodymyr Zelensky later said in an interview with Fox News that he did not think Trump owed him an apology, but he thought the relationship could be salvaged.

Trump and Vance have never seen war up close, but they are still disgusted by it. They seem to have sensed that Zelensky, immersed in the horror of war for three years, needed a lesson in peace that anyone who has seen war would want. Ignorance with money lectured loudly on the exhausted experience.

Where do we go from here? Zelensky has perhaps endured the defining moment of his presidency. He must either magically heal this rift, somehow survive without America, or else step aside and let someone else try, the latter perhaps easier. However, stepping down, as Moscow desires, could trigger a crisis on the front lines, eroding the political clarity and legitimacy of the government in Kiev, where parliamentary processes or flawed wartime elections are likely to hinder the production of a clean successor.

There are no good choices ahead, no sure bets. Yet one thing is comforting since I returned to Kiev. Europe’s security – after three terrifying weeks in which the Trump administration has called democracy and alliances across the continent into question – may seem in crisis from the comfortable perspective of London, Paris or Munich. Somehow in Kiev after three years, the doubts feel lighter. Waves of drones come here every night, yet the city adapts, people endure, the lights stay on.

This resilience makes it easier to understand Zelensky’s sensitivity to being lectured by Vance on the sacrifice and danger of his nation. As one Ukrainian civilian summed it up last night: “Dignity is also a value. If Russia can’t destroy it, why does the US think it can?”