Pro-Ukraine protests erupt across US after Trump and Vance ‘ambush’ Zelenskyy
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Demonstrators surge in Vermont, New York City, and Boston after Oval Office debacle with president and vice-president

Protests against the  erupted across the US on Saturday following an unprecedented Oval Office clash, wherein Donald Trump and JD Vance escalated tensions with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Hundreds of protesters gathered in Waitsfield, , on Saturday morning to oppose the vice-president’s visit to the state for a ski trip with his family.

The demonstration had been planned  by the Mad River Valley chapter of Indivisible, a grassroots organizing group, but additional protesters said they were motivated to join after watching Vance and Trump’s combative White House meeting with Zelenskyy on Friday.

> **Pro-Ukraine protesters gathered in Waitsfield on Saturday morning to protest Vice President JD Vance, one day after the vice-president scolded Ukraine’s president in the Oval office.**
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>  March 1, 2025 at 8:38 AM

Protesters held signs reading “Vermont stands with Ukraine” and “International embarrassment”, while many waved Ukrainian flags in solidarity. Fox aired video of the protesters, but blurred out signs displaying messages against Vance and in favor of .

“After what he did yesterday, he crossed the line,” protester Cori Giroux told .

On Thursday, the governor, Phil Scott, a Republican who  in any of his three runs for the White House, issued a  calling on Vermonters to be respectful of Vance and his family during their visit.

“Please join me in welcoming them to Vermont and hoping they have an opportunity to experience what makes our state, and Vermonters, so special,” he said.

While Vance, who admitted on Friday he had never been to Ukraine, fled to an undisclosed location to evade protesters, some commentators noted that Zelenskyy, who stayed in Ukraine during Russia’s invasion, was returning to a Kyiv still under attack.

The protest followed a contentious confrontation in the Oval Office, where the US president told the Ukrainian leader to make a deal with Russia “or we’re out”. At one point, Trump accused Zelenskyy of not showing enough gratitude for US military and political aid, warning that he was “gambling with world war three”.

Zelenskyy countered that he had repeatedly thanked the American people and their leaders for their support, that but Ukrainians did not want to accept a ceasefire with Russia without security guarantees, since Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, had repeatedly broken a previous ceasefire agreement.

Following the exchange, European leaders, along with the prime ministers of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, posted messages of support for Ukraine.

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Leading Democratic lawmakers also rallied to Zelenskyy’s side, with one, the senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut,  the Oval office meeting an “ambush” of the Ukrainian president by Trump and Vance.

The aggressive meeting led to protests in cities and towns across the US, including , Los Angeles, and Boston, where hundreds gathered to express their support for Ukraine and Zelenskyy.

Videos posted on social networks showed hundreds of demonstrators gathered in New York’s , many carrying the blue-and-yellow flag of Ukraine on their backs. In Los Angeles county,  in front of a SpaceX’s facility, and protesters in Boston held an “emergency rally” for “fair peace” for Ukraine at Boston Common.

“Ukraine wants fair peace. Ukraine wants the war to end,” the group Boston Supports Ukraine . “Ukraine wants all of this on fair terms with security guarantees.”

For his part, Zelenskyy  of his warm reception in London on social networks, showing crowds of supporters lining the street outside Downing Street, where he was embraced by the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer.
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