Meet Oksana Markarova whose video from Donald Trump-Volodymyr Zelenskyy clash went viral

An ugly verbal spat between United States President Donald Trump and his counterpart from Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has got the entire world talking. The meeting has been described as a “shouting match” and a “meltdown” in news headlines. Amid this, a video from the meet has gone viral where a woman can be seen hiding her face in her hands and nodding. But who is she?

Oksana Markarova
The woman seen in the viral video is Oksana Markarova.
Markarova is the ambassador of Ukraine to the United States. She was appointed to the post in February 2021. She is also a former Minister of Finance in the Ukrainian government. She served as the finance minister in the governments of former Ukrainian Prime Ministers Volodymyr Groysman and Oleksiy Honcharuk.

Meeting
The meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy on Friday was intended to facilitate the signing of an agreement that would have allowed the US to mine Ukraine’s rare earth minerals in exchange for security guarantees.

But the widely-observed meeting heated up as Trump and US Vice President JD Vance slammed Zelenskyy for being “disrespectful” towards their country. “You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people,” Trump shouted. “You’re gambling with World War III, and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country – this country.”

Zelenskyy, on the other hand, told Trump there would be “no compromises with a killer on our territory.”

World’s reaction
The verbal clash at the Oval Office in Washington, DC grabbed headlines all around the world as reactions poured in from political leaders across the globe.

In recent days, Trump’s berating of Zelenskyy and siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin has worried Ukraine and its allies, who fear that Trump and the Russian president could cut a deal that leaves them sidelined and undermines their security.