On March 15, 2025, the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers lay on the ground in the area of the Kursk region of Russia that had been recaptured by the Russian army. On March 15, the Russian and Ukrainian armies engaged in a fierce air battle throughout the night.

　　During the Russo-Ukrainian War, the Russian Ministry of Defense's press office provided the Associated Press with photos of the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers, which were then released by the Ukrainian Ministry of Emergency Situations. On March 15, 2025, the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers were lying on the ground in the area of the Kursk region of Russia that had been recaptured by Russian forces. On March 15, the Russian and Ukrainian armies engaged in a fierce air battle throughout the night.

　　On March 15, the Ukrainian Air Force announced that the Russian army had fired 178 drones and two ballistic missiles into Ukrainian airspace throughout the night. The attacks involved a mixture of Shahed-type drones and imitation drones designed to disrupt air defense networks. Around 130 of the drones were shot down, and a further 38 failed to reach their targets. The air battle broke out within 24 hours of March 13, when Russian President Vladimir Putin met with special envoy Steve Witkov to discuss a US ceasefire proposal.

　　On March 14, the American authorities said that thousands of Ukrainian troops had been surrounded by Russian troops. The Ukrainian authorities said that Ukrainian troops had maintained their position in the Kursk region of Russia. Ukrainian troops continued to block Russian and North Korean troops in the Kursk region. Debris from a drone fell in the Volgograd region of Russia, causing a fire in the Krasnoarmeysky district. The nearby airport was temporarily closed to flights, and there were no casualties. The Volgograd Oil Refinery was targeted by Ukrainian forces on February 15th, and drones have been shot at it since Russia invaded Ukraine more than three years ago.

During the Battle of Okinawa in the Pacific War, the bodies of Japanese soldiers who had been killed were lying face down in front of the trenches. During the Battle of Okinawa, both Japanese soldiers and Japanese residents were caught up in the fighting and killed.

      During the Battle of Okinawa in the Pacific War, the bodies of Japanese soldiers who had been killed were lying face down in front of the trenches. During the Battle of Okinawa, both Japanese soldiers and Japanese residents were caught up in the fighting and killed. Among them, there were many who were killed not only by the American military, but also by the Japanese military. The fighting was fierce, and at close range, the American and Japanese forces engaged each other on the slopes of many hills, and in caves, trenches, foxholes and pillboxes.

    In the fighting that continued until June 23, 1945, around 100,000 combatants and 200,000 civilians died. Boys and girls organized into groups such as the Tekketsu Kin'o-tai and Himeyuri Butai also became victims of the Battle of Okinawa. Approximately 800 Okinawan civilians were killed by the Japanese military for reasons such as being in the way of the fighting.

   Before the American invasion of Okinawa, the Japanese military constructed a complex system of strongholds in the southern part of the island. The defensive line, which stretched from east to west, crossed the length of the island. The defensive line, which was built on ridges, hills and cliffs, turned the terrain into a fortress. The US 10th Army, which had landed on the western side of Okinawa Island, pushed straight south towards the Japanese military headquarters in Shuri, penetrating the stronghold of the defensive network prepared by the Japanese military. One of the fiercest battles of the Pacific War was fought here.

   The US invasion was paid for in blood by the Japanese military, who were outnumbered and fighting a defensive battle in dug-in trenches. The Japanese terrain and fortifications proved to be a formidable obstacle for the American forces. The intense heat and incessant downpours throughout most of May 1945 hampered the American advance. The American 10th Army had only advanced a short distance in the seven weeks since the battle began. By the end of May, the rain had eased and the Japanese forces had been considerably weakened, and it took the Americans only four weeks to make the final 16km push to the southern tip of Okinawa Island.

After the Nazi German army retreated from the Battle of Stalingrad, the local residents began searching for their missing relatives. The parents gazed in grief as they discovered the body of their son, who had died of exposure on the snowy battlefield in the southern Russian city of Pyt-Yagorsk.

   After the Nazi German army retreated from the Battle of Stalingrad on the Eastern Front during World War II, the local residents began searching for their missing relatives. The parents gazed in grief as they discovered the body of their son, who had died of frostbite on the snowy battlefield in the southern Russian city of Pyatigorsk. Local residents surrounded them and watched on.

   From the Barbarossa Operation of World War II, the Wehrmacht temporarily occupied Pyatigorsk in the Soviet Union. In 1942, Einsatzgruppe D's Einsatzkommando 12 set up its headquarters in Pyatigorsk. The German army occupied the area and killed many of the local Jewish residents. The starting point for the operation in Pyatigorsk was reached by the Wehrmacht on August 10th 1942, and they reached the Khadar Gorge on August 16th. On August 21st, troops from the German 1st Mountain Division raised the Nazi German flag on the summit of Mount Elbrus, the highest peak in the Caucasus and Europe. During the German occupation, mass executions were carried out by Gestapo executioners. The Battle of Stalingrad, which broke out on June 28th 1942, quickly developed into a large-scale battle due to the tenacious resistance of the Soviet army and large-scale counterattacks. At the end of 1942, in the Battle of Stalingrad in the Caucasus, local partisans, who knew every valley and path, fought along the roads of the Ossetian army.

   On January 11, 1943, the Soviet army liberated Pyatigorsk from the invading German army. In early 1943, the German army began to withdraw from other areas. They built a defensive line (the Kuban Bridgehead) on the Taman Peninsula and launched a new campaign in the Caucasus. The Germans were ordered to retreat again, and by September 1943, the fighting in the Caucasus had effectively ended. On February 28, 1943, the German forces in the besieged city of Stalingrad were forced to surrender.

During the Battle of Iwo Jima in the Pacific War, Japanese soldiers were killed and fell by the American army on Iwo Jima. The Japanese army was completely wiped out by the American army in caves and strongholds through relentless close-quarters combat.

　　　During the Battle of Iwo Jima in the Pacific War, Japanese soldiers were killed and fell by the American army on Iwo Jima. Both the Japanese and American armies continued to fight fiercely, suffering heavy casualties. The Battle of Iwo Jima, which the American army invaded on February 19th 1945, broke out. The Japanese army was completely wiped out from caves and other strongholds by relentless close-quarters attacks. The Battle of Iwo Jima was fought in a landscape of molten sulfur and steam, defensive terrain, continuous underground tunnels, treacherous waves, and hundreds of hidden fighting positions housing fanatical, suicidal Japanese soldiers.

　　　In the 36 days of fighting on Iwo Jima, the amphibious troops killed a staggering 22,000 Japanese soldiers and sailors. The US Marine Corps and Navy assault troops suffered 24,053 casualties, of which 6,140 were killed. It was also the only battle in which the US suffered more casualties than the Japanese. Nearly 700 Americans per square kilometer died. On an area the size of a football pitch, an average of more than one US soldier and five Japanese soldiers died, and five US soldiers were injured.

　　The Battle of Iwo Jima ended on March 26th 1945, and the American occupation of Iwo Jima increased the range, payload and survivability of large bombers. The B-29s based in the Mariana Islands increased the monthly tonnage of high explosives dropped on Japan by 11 times in March alone. On April 7, 80 P-51 Mustangs took off from Iwo Jima to escort the B-29s attacking the Nakajima Aircraft Factory in Tokyo. The US Air Force made good use of Iwo Jima as an emergency landing site, and by the end of the Pacific War, a total of 2,251 B-29s had been forced to land on Iwo Jima, corresponding to 24,761 aircrew.

On April 30th 1943, members of the International Commission looked down on the mass grave in the Katyn Forest in Smolensk, Poland, where the bodies of Polish officers and others were buried.

      On April 30th 1943, the bodies of Poles who had fallen victim to Stalin's terror were exhumed from the Katyn Forest in Smolensk, Poland. Members of the international commission looked down on the mass grave where the bodies of Polish officers and others were buried. The bodies discovered in the mass grave in Katyn Forest had all been shot once or several times with a 7.65mm pistol at close range in the back of the head. Most of the bodies had their hands tied behind their backs, and bayonet wounds were found on many of the bodies. In the spring of 1943, 4,140 bodies were discovered in the mass grave in Katyn Forest.

    On April 13th 1943, Nazi Germany announced the Katyn massacre by the Soviet army on a broadcast from Berlin. Local residents from Smolensk reported to the German authorities that mass executions had been carried out by Soviet Bolsheviks, and that the Soviet secret police (NKVD) had killed 10,000 Polish officers. The German authorities went to the Katyn Forest, a Russian holiday resort known as “Goat Hill” located 12km west of Smolensk, and discovered a mass grave.

    On September 1st 1939, the German army invaded Poland, and on September 17th the Soviet Red Army invaded Poland. In September 1939, the Soviet army handed over Polish officers who had been taken prisoner to the Soviet secret police (NKVD), and they were imprisoned in various Soviet camps for seven months. On March 5th 1940, Stalin signed an order for their liquidation by mass murder. In April and May, the NKVD of the Soviet Union murdered a total of 21,857 Polish officers and members of the intelligentsia in various locations. In summary, the NKVD of the Soviet Union murdered a total of 21,857 Polish officers and members of the intelligentsia in various locations.

    In 1943, as the war against Russia worsened, the German army announced that they had exhumed thousands of bodies in the Katyn Forest. The Polish government in exile (based in London) visited the site and determined that the killings were the responsibility of the Soviets, not the Nazis. The delegates were pressured by the US and British authorities to keep the report secret for fear of diplomatic rupture with the Soviets. After World War II, the Soviet Union pinned the war crime of the massacre on the Nazis. In 1990, the Soviet government assessed it as the worst atrocity of Stalinism.

On April 2, 2002, Palestinian man Jaykoub Abu Da, 37, and his mother Sumaya, 64, were shot dead by Israeli soldiers at their home in Bethlehem, on the West Bank of the Jordan River in the Palestinian territories.

 　On April 2nd 2002, Palestinian man Jaykoub Abu Da, 37, and his mother Sumaya, 64, were shot dead by Israeli soldiers at their home in Bethlehem, in the West Bank of the Palestinian territories. Tension had been high in the area around the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem after Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian man on March 31st.

　　The Israeli military's “Operation Shield of Defense” in the West Bank from March 29 to April 21, 2002, was the largest military operation since the 1967 war. The incursion came after a series of bombings by Palestinian militants in Israel. On March 31, two Palestinian suicide bombings killed at least 14 people. According to the United Nations, 497 Palestinians and 30 Israeli soldiers were killed during Operation Shield of Defense. 7,000 Palestinians were detained and there was extensive destruction of property and infrastructure. According to several human rights organizations, the Israeli military carried out a massacre of Palestinians during the invasion that was illegal under international humanitarian law and constituted a war crime.

　　Bethlehem was under Jordanian control until the 1967 Six-Day War, when it was occupied by Israel along with the rest of the West Bank. After this, Israel controlled Bethlehem, and in 1995, Israel handed over Bethlehem to the Palestinian Authority under the terms of the Interim Self-Government Agreement.

The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima caused burns and keloids on the back of Mr. T. Kuwabara, and these were photographed on July 7, 1947 for the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission.

　　　　　　　　Undisclosed photos of Japanese

Atomic-bomb survivors

U.S. Atomic Bomb Surveys

The National Archives College Park, Maryland

February 23, 2024     　　　　　　　　　　

SC-295908

SC-295908

(FEC-47-77488)

7 JULY 1947

MEDICAL RECORDS OF ATOMIC BOMB VICTIMS:

T. KUWABARA, FLASH BURNS AND KELOIDS ON THE BACK CAUSED BY THE ATOMIC BOMB DROPPED ON HIROSHIMA. PICTURE TAKEN FOR THE ATOMIC BOMB CASUALTY COMMISSION.

PHOTOGRAPHER-SNELL

PHOTOGRAPH BY U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORPS.

15678 115

Hardo Judi, a 9-year-old Palestinian boy, patted the face of his 8-month-old sister who had died in an Israeli air raid on October 22, 2024, in the morgue at the Deir al-Bala hospital.

　　On October 22, 2024, two buildings that were sheltering a large Palestinian family were destroyed in an Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip. 68 people in the Deir al-Bala area in the center of the Gaza Strip lost their lives in the Israeli air raid. Palestinian 9-year-old Khaled Joudi was crying in the morgue of Deir al-Bala Hospital, stroking the face of his 8-month-old sister who had died.

　　Haleed Joudi was wearing a sleeveless T-shirt and was barefoot. His sister looked like a little angel who had been punched in the face. His mother and 12-year-old brother were no longer alive. He first looked at his mother, then at his younger brother Khalil, and then at his sister Miske, and started crying again.

　　Haleed Joudi whispered, “I was so happy when you were born,” and gently touched her forehead. Tears ran down his cheeks and onto his sister's forehead. Her hair was disheveled. Haled, who would not stop crying, also said goodbye to his mother, father, older brother and baby sister. Only his younger brother, Tamer, aged 7, and Haled, aged 9, survived.

　　The Jude family, who are Palestinian, have lived together for generations. Some of the family members evacuated to the north of the Gaza Strip when the Israeli army ordered the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate.Due to an Israeli air raid, a family member was buried alongside the others in a long grave. Khaled Joudi's living conditions were very sad, with no one to look after him, he was very thin and there was not enough food or water. When he slept in the tent, he felt cold and got wet from the rain.

Warning: Khaled Joudeh searches for his killed family members, including his baby sister, Misq, at the morgue in the Deir Al-Balah hospital, on October 22, 2023, After they were killed in Israeli airstrikes. Khaled is the lone surviving member of his immediate family. (Samar Abu Elouf/New York Times)

In early 1978, the Khmer Rouge of Kampuchea attacked Vietnamese civilians in Ha Tien Province, Kien Giang Province in southern Vietnam. After that, the bodies of Vietnamese civilians were scattered and decomposed in Ha Tien Province.

    In early 1978, the Khmer Rouge of Kampuchea attacked Vietnamese civilians in Ha Tien Province, Kien Giang Province in southern Vietnam. After that, the bodies of the Vietnamese civilians were scattered and decomposed in Ha Tien Province. In 1977, the Khmer Rouge Army (KRA) faced an unfavorable situation with 70,000 against 615,000 Vietnamese troops, they continued to attack the Vietnamese border areas. In January 1978, the Khmer Rouge army held on to a part of Vietnamese territory and began to take over Vietnamese army outposts in Ha Tien Province. On January 27, 1978, Vietnam began to invade the Khmer Rouge army in the border areas in order to overthrow the Khmer Rouge regime.

   The Khmer Rouge (Cambodian Communist Party) ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. Led by Pol Pot, it was responsible for the deaths of millions of people through cruelty. Attempts at agricultural reform caused widespread famine. The regime's insistence on absolute self-sufficiency in medicine also led to the deaths of thousands of people from illness and other causes. From 1976 to 1978, the brutal and arbitrary executions and torture of suspected subversives and the purges of the Khmer Rouge's own ranks carried out by Khmer Rouge cadres constituted genocide. The Khmer Rouge regime killed hundreds of thousands of people it considered political enemies and committed genocide against ethnic minorities. They executed and tortured a large number of suspected subversives. Between 1975 and 1978, the Cambodian genocide that ultimately occurred under the Khmer Rouge regime resulted in the deaths of between 15 and 20 million people, or around 25% of the Cambodian population.

    On December 25th 1978, Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion of Kampuchea. They occupied Kampuchea within two weeks and took over the government of the Kampuchea Communist Party. Vietnam ended the massacres of Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge. On January 7, 1979, the Vietnamese army occupied the capital Phnom Penh, and Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge retreated to the jungles near the Thai border. 

The bodies of Japanese soldiers who died in the Manchurian Incident, which broke out on September 18th 1931, were buried in the depths of Manchuria. Japanese soldiers, grieving, buried their comrades' bodies on stretchers in the Manchurian wilderness and said their farewells.

     The Manchurian Incident, which broke out on September 18th 1931, saw the front line spread deeper and deeper into the interior of Manchuria in China. The bodies of Japanese soldiers who had died in the interior of Manchuria were buried in the interior. In winter, the ground would freeze to a depth of two meters, leaving the area a frozen wilderness. Japanese soldiers, overcome with grief, buried their fallen comrades on stretchers and said their final farewells in the Manchurian wilderness.

　  On the night of September 18th 1931, the South Manchuria Railway Company's tracks near the Liuqiao Lake in the suburbs of Mukden (now Shenyang) were blown up by officers of the Kwantung Army, a part of the Imperial Japanese Army stationed in Manchuria. The Japanese Army, the owner of the railway, blamed this incident on Chinese nationalists and used it as an excuse to invade Manchuria in retaliation. However, some people suspected that the bomb was planted by Japanese military officers in order to create an excuse for subsequent military action. Within a short period of a few months, the Japanese military had taken control of the Manchurian region. With little resistance from the Chinese military, which had received little training, the Japanese military strengthened its control over the resource-rich Manchurian region. The Japanese military declared that the region would become a new autonomous state called Manchukuo. In reality, the new state was under the control of the local Japanese military.

      On January 14th 1932, a League of Nations investigation team visited China, and on October 2nd the Lytton Commission's report was published. It attributed equal blame for the conflict in Manchuria to Chinese nationalism and Japanese militarism. The report stated that the establishment of the Manchukuo state violated China's territorial integrity and that it would not recognize the new state. On March 27, 1933, when the Lytton Report was ratified at the League of Nations, the Japanese delegation left the meeting and did not return to the Council of the League of Nations. Although Japan and China signed a truce agreement, the agreement left Japan in complete control of Manchuria.

After the Allied air raid on Dresden in February 1945, Dresden was reduced to ruins, with corpses lying everywhere, all the buildings destroyed, and thousands of citizens dead.

　　　After the Allied air raid on Dresden in February 1945, the city was strewn with corpses. Dresden had been reduced to ruins, all the buildings had been destroyed, and thousands of citizens had died. The city had suffered great damage, and all the buildings and famous landmarks had been destroyed by the ruthless aerial bombing. The Allied bombing method was to first expose the wooden frames of the buildings with high-explosive bombs, then ignite the wood with incendiary bombs, and finally bomb the area to prevent firefighting efforts. When World War II ended, investigators and journalists estimated the number of dead in Dresden to be between 10,000 and 200,000.

　　　On the night of February 13th 1945, British RAF bombers dropped thousands of bombs in just a few hours. Dresden's defenses were very weak, and only six Lancaster bombers were shot down, and by the next morning, British RAF bombers had dropped over 14,000 tons of high-explosive bombs and over 1,100 tons of incendiary bombs on Dresden. The attack destroyed most of Dresden's infrastructure and killed thousands of people.

　　　When the survivors fled the smoldering city on February 14, 1945, the US Air Force began bombing Dresden's roads, bridges, railways and houses, killing thousands more. On February 15, another 200 US bombers continued the attack on Dresden. On February 15, the Americans dropped 950 tons of high-explosive bombs and more than 290 tons of incendiary bombs. Later, the US 8th Air Force dropped more than 2,800 tons of bombs on Dresden in three attacks before the end of the war.

　　As the Soviet Red Army grew stronger and occupied city after city, Hitler defended Berlin with all his might. Dresden, which had offered only minimal resistance until the occupation of Berlin, was targeted for saturation bombing. The industrial and civilian areas of the city were destroyed along with the German military units. The Allied Command determined that the attack would devastate the German economy, demoralize the German people, and force an early surrender.

At the behest of American soldiers, on May 17th 1945, the surviving residents of the town of Namerling, as well as German boys, were shown the corpses of the approximately 800 victims of Nazi Germany's massacres, and were shocked.

 　At the order of American soldiers, on May 17th 1945, the surviving residents of the town of Namerling, as well as German boys, were shocked to be shown the corpses of the approximately 800 victims of Nazi Germany's massacres. The corpses of prisoners from the Buchenwald concentration camp who had died during the death marches were made to be buried by the residents of the area near Namerling, who were made to dig the graves.

　　After the liberation of Buchenwald on April 11th 1945, the bodies of thousands more prisoners were discovered in places such as Ravensbrück and Dachau. In many large and small camps, the Western Allied Forces discovered a situation of Holocaust proportions that exceeded their imagination. General Eisenhower, along with General George Patton and General Omar Bradley, visited the small camp at Oldendorf near Weimar and witnessed the tragic scene on April 12th 1945. They then sent photographers to document the scene. With the Allied invasion, the massacres that took place in concentration camps became a product of a certain madness.

　　General Eisenhower, like the Russian commanders, ordered not only the Allied soldiers but also the Germans to see the massacres at Ordruf. He ordered the people of many towns to pass through the camps, including their children. The Germans were drafted to help bury the piles of dead prisoners. In Leipzig, he ordered the mayor to provide coffins to hold the bodies of 75 prisoners from the Leipzig-Mokau concentration camp. The prisoners were locked in barracks and burned alive. Prisoners who tried to escape were shot by the Hitler Youth on tanks. A funeral and burial ceremony was held at the Leipzig communal cemetery for the dead prisoners, and all the city officials were ordered to attend the ceremony, which was presided over by Christian and Jewish military chaplains. In addition, 900 other Germans came voluntarily to lay flowers on the graves. Mayor Oldorf did not get away with it, and he and his wife later committed suicide.

On March 10, 1944, on a snow-covered plateau on the Western Front of World War II, 28-year-old Théodose Morel, a leader of the French Resistance, was killed in action during a battle with the Vichy regime's Gendarmerie Militaire (GMR).

 　　On the Western Front during World War II, on March 10th 1944, 28-year-old Théodore Morel, a leader of the French Resistance, was killed in action during a battle with the GMR (the Vichy government's organized paramilitary National Guard). A solemn funeral was held for all of the maquisards on the snow-covered plateau. As the days passed, the Vichy regime's grip on Grières tightened. On March 25, the German troops of the 157th Alpine Division prepared their positions for an attack on March 26.

　　The Maquis de Glières was a Free French resistance group that fought against the German occupation of France during the Second World War from 1940 to 1944. The operation against the Maquis in Haute-Savoie was triggered by the discovery of the bodies of several policemen who had been killed.　The Maquis benefited from the arrival of 120 fighters from Chablais and Giffre. Morel led a more dangerous operation against the GMR troops in Entremont on the Plateau de Glières. GMR commander Lefebvre, who arrived on March 7, refused to talk to the Maquis. On March 9 and 10, more than 100 Maquis took part in the operation. The unit under Morel's direct command succeeded in capturing the French Hotel where the GMR members were staying. The captured GMR members laid down their arms, but Lefebvre took out a gun he had hidden and fired at Morel from close range, hitting him in the heart and killing him instantly. Lefebvre was also killed by the Maquis immediately afterwards.

　　On March 26th 1944, the German army turned the offensive. A German patrol unit, a mountain corps, attacked the exit of the plateau and occupied the forward base in the rear. The Maquis were overwhelmed by the Germans, who outnumbered them, and were ordered to retreat. In the days that followed, the Germans killed 120 Maquis.The damage and defeat in the Savoie region gave a boost to the French Resistance in the spring of 1944.

Akira Yamaguchi suffered burns to his face and forearms in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The survivors of the bombing were left with keloid scars from their burns.

　　　　　　　Undisclosed photos of Japanese

Atomic-bomb survivors

U.S. Atomic Bomb Surveys

The National Archives College Park, Maryland

February 23, 2024     　　　　　　　　　　

SC-285521, 285522

SC-285522

(FEC-47-72298)14752

14 MARCH 1947

ATOMIC BOMB SURVIVOR RETAINS SEVERE SCARS FROM BURNS :

AKIRA YAMAGUCHI SUSTAINED BURNS OF HIS FACE AND FOREARMS FROM THE ATOMIC BOMB EXPLOSION AT HIROSHIMA.

PHOTOGRAPHER-BLOCK

Atomic Bomb Casualty

RELEASED FOR PUBLICATION 

PUBLIC INFORMATION DIVISION 

WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON

Photograph by Signal Corps U.S. Army

SC-285521

717(FEG-47-72297)14752

14 MARCH 1947

ATOMIC SOMB SURVIVOR RETAINS SEVERE SCARS FROM BURNS:

AKIRA YAMAGUCHI SUSTAINED BURNS OF HIS FACE AND FOREARMS FROM THE ATOMIC BOMB EXPLOSION AT HIROSHIMA,

PHOTOGRAPHER-BLOCK

14752

Atomic Bomb Casualties

RELEASED FOR PUBLICATION 

PUBLIC INFORMATION DIVISION WAR DEPARTMENT, 

WASHINGTON WAR DEPARTMENT

Photograph by Signal Corps U.S. Army

During a meeting in the Oval Office on February 28, 2025, President Donald Trump abruptly canceled the signing of a mineral deal after accusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of being “rude.”

　　President Donald Trump abruptly canceled the signing of a mineral deal during a meeting in the Oval Office on February 28, 2025, accusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of being “rude.” President Zelensky left the White House without signing the mineral deal after a tense meeting in Trump's Oval Office in Washington.

　　The surprising turn of events could disrupt the situation in Europe and around the world. During his visit with President Trump, President Zelensky was scheduled to sign an agreement that would allow the US to obtain more of Ukraine's rare earth minerals and hold a joint press conference. After the two leaders engaged in a heated argument in front of the press, the plan was scrapped.

　　President Trump insisted that it was essential for Ukraine to repay the US for the more than $180 billion in aid sent to the government in Kiev since the start of the war. It is unclear what this latest tit-for-tat means. It is also not yet clear what, if anything, President Trump wants from President Zelensky to get this deal back on track.

　　The Ukrainian leader was asked to leave the White House by President Trump shortly after Trump had shouted at him and shown him open contempt, saying, “You're betting on World War III. What you're doing is very disrespectful to this country that has supported you more than most people know.”

　　The last 10 minutes of the 45-minute meeting saw a tense exchange between President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and President Zelensky. President Zelensky cited Moscow's long history of broken promises on the world stage, prompting skepticism about Russia's commitment to diplomacy.

　　Zelensky's main aim was to pressure Trump not to abandon his country and to warn him not to get too close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Instead, he was shouted down and Trump looked like a drama actor performing for the cameras.

Warning: The argument began when JD Vance accused Zelensky of disrespecting the US (EPA)