A lipreader has revealed what she claims Volodymyr Zelensky told Benjamin Netanyahu during a tense exchange in Washington. The Ukrainian President and the Israeli Prime Minister were filmed having a passionate chat at the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham last night.
Zelensky's words revealed
The world leaders were at Washington National Cathedral to honour the influential Republican, who was a major supporter of both their countries. However, Nicola Hickling, an expert in lipreading, has claimed the pair were not seeing eye to eye. The cameras only picked up what Zelensky was saying. Here is what Nicola thinks he told Netanyahu.
The Ukrainian leader can be seen saying: 'We have conditions, they’ve not met them. We must get them to agree.' After Netanyahu responds, Zelensky says: 'That’s incorrect.' The Israeli leader continues speaking as the pair are joined by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and US Secretary for Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin.
Agree to disagree
Zelensky then says: 'We want it this way too. Let’s agree to disagree.' He then nods and adds: 'Good.' The pair shake hands and smile at each other, before turning away to speak to other guests at the funeral.
The gathering was an eventful one as world leaders and US politicians paid tribute to Graham, who died of an 'aortic dissection' – a tear in the heart’s main artery. In one viral moment, President Donald Trump pulled out a box of Tic Tacs and offered them to JD Vance.
Trump's eulogy
The cameras also caught the US leader appearing to struggle to keep his eyes open. He seemed on the verge of nodding off as he sat at the front of the packed cathedral. In his eulogy to the Republican Senator, Trump also recalled leaking Graham’s phone number. The pair became allies but were locked in a bitter feud in the summer of 2015, when Graham called Trump a 'jacka**'.
Trump then read out Graham’s phone number on stage for the world’s media. Reflecting on the moment last night, Trump said: 'So naturally, I did something that I shouldn’t have done. I shared his personal cell phone number with the millions of people that happened to be watching that particular day as I made a speech. And I remember the number: 202-228-0292, if anybody wants to give it a shot. His phone exploded. But it was Lindsey who had the last laugh, because while I blew up his phone for one day, we became great friends, and Lindsey did not stop calling me for the next 10 years. It was not easy.'
