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.