Featured Image Credit: BBC
Topics: Ukraine, Russia, Donald Trump, Social Media, Instagram
Ellie Kemp
President Donald Trump has left people shocked with his response to a Ukrainian journalist whose husband is a soldier in Ukraine.
The US President was in The Hague for a NATO summit, where heads of state and governments of NATO member countries discuss important issues facing them and provide strategic direction for its activities.
During a press conference on Wednesday (June 25), Trump took a question from BBC Ukrainian reporter Myroslava Petsa.
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And how he answered her has left the internet pretty open-mouthed.
Myroslava asked whether the US is ready to sell more Patriot anti-air missile systems to Ukraine.
"We know Russia has been pounding Ukraine really heavily right now," she said. Trump went on to ask Myroslava more about herself, adding: "Are you living yourself now in Ukraine?"
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"My husband is there" she responded, "And me with the kids, I'm in Warsaw actually because he wanted me to be there."
"Is your husband a soldier? No?" Trump replied, to which Myroslava clarified that he was - and he was in Ukraine right now.
"That's rough stuff right? That's tough," the former businessman responded.
He then went on to answer her original question: "So let me just tell you, they do want to have the anti-missiles, as they call them, The Patriots.
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"And we're going to see if we can make some available, they're very hard to get."
He continued: "We need them too, we're supplying them to Israel and they're very effective, 100 percent effective, hard to believe how effective, and they do want that more than any other thing, as you probably know."
He concluded: "It's a very good question and I wish you a lot of luck. I mean, I can see it's very upsetting to you.
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"Say hello, to your husband, ok?"
And Trump appearing to show a shred of compassion sent social media users into overdrive.
Reacting to a clip of the interview on Instagram, one person asked: "Was that Trump showing.. compassion? for a second?"
"This is the most decent, normal interaction he's ever had. Surprised he's capable of this," a second wrote.
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"For a moment I thought Trump was human," a third said, as a someone else replied: "Right? Calmest we've ever seen him."
Not everyone agreed though.
"Didn't anyone else interpret his reaction as condescending?" one person asked.
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"That’s not empathy," another weighed in. "That’s deflection and side-stepping the question. And not even an effective attempt at it."
After the meeting with Trump earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said they discussed buying American air defense systems to protect Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure, as per Kyiv Independent.
"Ukraine is ready to buy this equipment and support American weapons manufacturers. Europe can help. We also discussed the potential for co-production of drones. We can strengthen each other," Zelenskyy said.
The Patriot system works by scanning the skies with a powerful radar, locking on via its command center, then firing interceptor missiles to take down incoming threats.
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Trump had previously dismissed the request, accusing Zelenskyy of 'always looking to purchase missiles' and incorrectly blaming Ukraine for provoking the war.