'Very hard to watch': Sunak slams Trump over on-camera spat, says 'wrong’ to treat Zelenskyy that way'

Former British prime minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday said that US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during their tense meeting at the White House last week was “wrong”.

According to a Politico report, referencing Sunak’s first interview with the BBC since his loss in last July’s general election, the former UK prime minister slammed the US president for repeatedly lambasting Zelenskyy and expressed concerns about his approach to resolving the conflict in Ukraine.

“It was very hard to watch,” Politico quoted Sunak as telling to BBC’s Nick Robinson when pressed on the chaotic Oval Office scenes, in which Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance, berated Zelenskyy for a perceived lack of gratitude to the US.

“As someone who has spent a lot of time with Volodymyr, been in Kyiv with him, has seen what he has had to go through for his country … to see him be called a dictator, told he started this war, for him to be treated that way was wrong,” said Sunak.

Last month, Trump referred to Zelenskyy as a “dictator without elections,” falsely asserted that he had low approval ratings, and continued peace talks with Russia, Ukraine’s aggressor.

However, he softened his rhetoric toward Zelenskyy in a recent address to Congress, but only after cutting US aid to Ukraine.

Sunak, now a backbench Conservative MP, visited Ukraine twice during his time as prime minister and was a strong supporter of Kyiv while in office, a stance that has been maintained by his Labour successor, Keir Starmer.

In his interview with the BBC, Sunak acknowledged that Europe needs to take greater responsibility for its own defence, which is a central demand from Trump’s team.

“We can’t expect America to bear any burden for our security if we are not prepared to make those sacrifices ourselves,” he was quoted as saying.

“What has happened over the last few weeks has been clarifying, and we have just had to be open and honest about that now,” he added.

With inputs from agencies