Trump holds brief ‘drop in’ meeting with Ukrainian leader Poroshenko

President Donald Trump met with his Ukrainian counterpart on Tuesday amid intensifying questions over whether his administration will step in to protect partners in the face of Russian aggression.

The meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was originally described by the White House as a brief “drop-in.” But the two presidents posed for photographs in the Oval Office and made brief remarks following Poroshenko’s more extensive meetings with Vice President Mike Pence and the administration’s top national security advisers.

With the Ukrainian leader sitting by his side, Trump said it was a “great honour” to meet Poroshenko and that “a lot of progress has been made” in the US relationship with Ukraine.

There was no mention of Russia, nor did Trump respond to questions about the ongoing investigation over possible collusion by members of the Trump administration with Russia during the 2016 presidential election. Trump staunchly denies that he had any contact with Russian officials during the campaign and has tweeted that the investigation is a “WITCH HUNT” spearheaded by Democrats bitter over losing the election.

Trump has maintained that he hopes to establish better ties with Moscow, repairing ill will from the Obama era that resulted from Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and its widely condemned support of Syria’s President Bashar Assad, despite his attacks against civilians. In April, following a suspected chemical attack against civilians in northern Syria by government forces, Trump said US relations with Russia “may be at all-time low.”

But less than a month later, the president hosted top Russian diplomats in a closed-door Oval Office meeting that suggested relations weren’t so bad after all. Photos later emerged showing Trump laughing with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russia’s envoy to the US, Sergey Kislyak. The White House press corps was not allowed access to that meeting.