President Donald Trump said Friday it was unimportant for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to be in meetings to negotiate an end to the Russia-Ukraine war—escalating a feud that began earlier this week after Zelensky rejected a deal to give the U.S. rights to some of Ukraine’s mineral resources.

Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky was a comedian with no political experience when he announced that he would be running in Ukraine's 2019 presidential election. Six years later, and he is now an embattled wartime leader and a symbol of Ukrainian defiance of Russian aggression.

After Trump called Zelensky a “dictator” and began talks with Russia, even some of Zelensky’s harshest domestic critics have begun defending him.