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It appears that Volodymyr Zelenskyy was “set up” by the White House team, the former British ambassador to Ukraine has told Sky’s Anna Jones.

Simon Smith said he had never seen anything like the exchange he witnessed between the two leaders yesterday.

“Zelenskyy has taken a lot of punishment and has gone through a lot wit heroic resilience,” he said.

“To be subjected to this sort of torture in the White House session was quote astonishing.”

The former ambassador went on to say he thought Zelenskyy was “set up”.

“He looked very much on his own while the White House team piled into him,” he said.

“It showed just how deep Trump’s resentment of him still is. That goes back to Trump’s feeling that Zelenskyy didn’t help him during his first term.

“Also Trump has been keen to move fast on the conflict and Zelenskyy is infuriating him by raising objections to that plan – objections that are entirely reasonable.”

Smith said one of the most worrying signs that had seen was Trump thinking Vladimir Putin was his friend and not his NATO allies.
Europe rallies around Ukraine after extraordinary Trump attack
World leaders in Europe were quick to rally and express their support for Volodymyr Zelenskyy after his heated exchange with Donald Trump.

A number of leaders, including Canada’s Justin Trudeau, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Germany’s Olaf Scholz, all tweeted their support after the Ukrainian leader was criticised.

Zelenskyy also spoke with Macron, NATO secretary general Mark Rutte and EU Council president Antonio Costa by phone.

It came as Zelenskyy portrayed the meeting as a moment of frank and divergent views between the two but said he did not see the need to apologise.

He added that he wished that Trump was “more on our side” after the US president said he was in the middle of Ukraine and Russia.