KYIV \u2014 Laura Loomer, an ardent ally of President Donald Trump with a reputation for incendiary social media commentary, met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday after a dramatic turnaround on the war that could have political reverberations back in Washington. <\/p>\n
Loomer had spent years minimizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and amplifying Russian propaganda to her nearly two million followers. This week she had a change of heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust experienced my first air raid in Ukraine. Sirens blaring. This is everyday for every Ukrainian,” Loomer wrote on X. \u201cI often said I don\u2019t care. Looking back, that wasn\u2019t very nice of me to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a stunning reversal for a woman who had spent years criticizing U.S. support for Ukraine’s defense, declaring it \u201ca country full of Nazi apologists\u201d \u2014 a claim used by Russia to justify its yearslong invasion \u2014 and “led by a Jihadi apologist.” <\/p>\n
The skepticism of Ukraine has been shared by other high profile conservative influencers, including former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.<\/p>\n
The meeting with Zelenskyy was confirmed by Dmytro Lytvyn, a spokesperson for the president, who said that no Ukrainian government institution had organized the visit. He added that Zelenskyy’s office first learned that Loomer was in Ukraine through social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is really important that @LauraLoomer is in Ukraine and sees things with her own eyes as they are,\u201d Zelenskyy’s office had written Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes courage to come to Ukraine and not be deterred by Russian propaganda or air raid sirens. Thank you, Laura,” they added Thursday.<\/p>\n
Loomer did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
In addition to the meeting with Zelenskyy, Loomer also visited the Dormition Cathedral of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, one of the country\u2019s most significant religious landmarks, which came under Russian attack last month.<\/p>\n
The attack on the monastic complex of golden domes in the heart of Kyiv, which is also known as the Monastery of the Caves, sparked a fire that caused significant interior and exterior damage, according to UNESCO. Zelenskyy had called it Moscow\u2019s \u201cbiggest crime yet against Christian culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russia denied responsibility for the attack, claiming, without offering evidence, that the complex was hit by one of Ukraine\u2019s U.S.-made Patriot air defense missiles \u2014 saying that it might have veered off course due to its age.<\/p>\n
In a video recorded from inside the church, Loomer accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of hypocrisy by portraying Russia as pro-Christian.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just don\u2019t think that you should be allowed to say that you\u2019re protecting Christianity if you\u2019re trying to drone strike Jesus Christ,” she said.<\/p>\n
Sergiy Kyslytsya and Tetyana Berezhna, two top Ukrainian officials, were among those who met with Loomer and joined her for the visit.<\/p>\n
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the trip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KYIV \u2014 Laura Loomer, an ardent ally of President Donald Trump with a reputation for incendiary social media…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1746,1747],"class_list":["post-20310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-ap-a-wire","tag-wires-bot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}