'A bigger victory for Putin than any of his military battles'

Russian officials and Moscow's media outlets reacted with predictable glee to the dramatic clash between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump at the White House on Friday.

- Pjotr Sauer

Posting on social media, Dmitry Medvedev, Putin's deputy on the security council and former president, called the exchange "a brutal dressing-down in the Oval Office".

He wrote: "Trump told the ... clown [Zelenskyy] the truth to his face: the Kyiv regime is playing with the third world war... This is useful. But it's not enough we need to stop military support [to Ukraine]."

In recent days, concern grew in Moscow as Trump seemed to lean toward a more Zelenskyy-friendly position following visits to Washington by the leaders of Poland, France and Britain, who urged support for Ukraine. Trump had indicated a willingness to back European peacekeepers in Ukraine a move Kyiv and European governments saw as essential to preventing Moscow from reigniting the war, as it had after previous ceasefires.

But any worries the Kremlin may have had faded when Zelenskyy found himself ambushed by Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance.

"How Trump and Vance held back from hitting that scumbag is a miracle of restraint," wrote Maria Zakharova, Russia's foreign ministry spokesperson, on Telegram.