Ukrainian beauty queen melts the ice between Trump and Zelensky in phone call that stunned officials
Volodymyr Zelensky was able to get onto Donald Trump’s good side by bonding over Ukrainian beauty queens, according to a new report.
After his fall from grace earlier this year during the infamous Oval Office shouting-match, Zelensky knew he had to mend fences with the president if there was any hope of earning continued US assistance in the war with Russia.
Things appeared to begin turning in Ukraine’s favor after Trump’s August summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska produced no real movement to bring an end to the years-long conflict. Zelensky and seven other European leaders came to Washington, DC to meet with Trump three days after that lackluster bilateral meeting.
During the sit-down, Trump told aides while discussing his previous ownership of the Miss Universe pageant about how Ukrainian contestants were some of the prettiest.
‘Ukrainian women are beautiful,’ Trump blurted out, an official who was at that meeting told the New York Times.
Zelensky apparently replied: ‘I know, I married one.’
This broke the ice with Trump, who is also married to an Eastern European model.
The president recounted to his counterpart about how his longtime friend, Las Vegas casino owner Phil Ruffin, 90, married former Miss Ukraine Oleksandra Nikolayenko, 44.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was able to mend fences with President Donald Trump by discussing beautiful European women
Trump told Zelensky at an August 2025 meeting in Washington, DC about how how he met Oleksandra Nikolayenko through the Miss Universe pageant and introduced her to his longtime friend Phil Ruffin
Ruffin, now 90, and Nikolayenko, now 44, married in 2008 at Mar-a-Lago with Trump as the best man
Trump, during his August meeting with Zelensky and European leaders, called Nikolayenko and had her speak with Zelensky in their mother tongue for 10-15 minutes about the war with Russia and how her parents stayed in their home in Ukraine
Volodymyr Zelensky and wife Olena Zelenska on December 1, 2025 following a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron
Trump first met Nikolayenko through the Miss Universe Pageant, which he owned from 1996 until September 2015 when he sold it amid his 2016 campaign.
He introduced her to Ruffin.
Then Trump called his buddy, who put his wife on the phone. The former pageant queen and Ukrainian president then spoke to each other in their mother tongue for 10 to 15 minutes as official business went on pause.
The official who was at the meeting said ‘you could feel the room change’ as the two world leaders discussed Ukrainian women and connected on a more human level than previously.
‘The temperature dropped. Everyone laughed. What it did was create a human connection,’ they added. ‘It was kind of a mind meld. It humanized Zelensky with Trump.’
Nikolayenko recalled how Zelensky expressed in their conversation how he was ‘surprised’ that her family didn’t leave their home in Odesa, Ukraine.
‘My father wouldn’t leave. He’s an old-school officer. And he believes that if he leaves, there will be nothing to come back to. He wants to be with his home, with his land, with his country,’ Nikolayenko said, according to the Times.
Nikolayenko represented Ukraine at the 2004 Miss Universe contest in Ecuador and she was a judge at the 2005 pageant in Thailand.
Ruffin and Nikolayenko were wed at Mar-a-Lago in 2008, with Trump as the best man.
The Las Vegas mogul has gone on record to say that Nikolayenko and first lady Melania Trump – much like his wife, a years-younger Eastern European model – are very close ‘like peas in a pod.’
Nikolayenko represented Ukraine in the 2004 Miss Universe contest in Ecuador
Ruffin says that his wife and first lady Melania Trump are very close and ‘like peas in a pod’
The August meeting – and the surprise guest discussion with Nikolayenko – resulted in the Trump administration first announcing that it was willing to offer ‘NATO-like’ security assurances for Ukraine.
Earlier this month Trump reiterated that with a proposed peace deal with Russia that included such protections for Ukraine by the US and European allies.
Zelensky again met with Trump at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida on Sunday to work out the 20-points in their peace deal.
Ukraine would receive these ‘NATO-like’ security guarantees and would be able to join the European Union in the future, but the fighting in Donetsk would be halted at the current battle lines — with Ukrainian and Russian forces withdrawing to create a demilitarized zone.
Zelensky’s proposal calls for his country to receive $800 billion to help rebuild after the war.
‘We’ll see if it gets done, but it’s very close, certainly,’ Trump told press following the meeting.
Despite the inching towards a deal on the side of the US, Ukraine and Europe – it’s highly doubtful that Russia will agree to any terms that include even mention of a NATO-style protections for Ukraine.
And it’s angering Trump that he isn’t able to tick off this war as another he was able to help end in his second term.
Trump bragged during his campaign that he would have the war ended within hours of getting back into office – and said it would have never started if he earned a second term consecutively to his first.
On Truth Social, Trump shared his growing ire with Putin’s refusal to bring an end to the war.
He posted a NY Post article on Thursday titled: ‘Putin ‘attack’ bluster shows Russia is the one standing in the way of peace.’
