The sirens had already sounded that day in Kyiv. Laura Loomer stood inside Mariinsky Palace anyway, notebook in hand, recorder running. No questions off limits, she had promised her audience back home. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wearing a suit for the occasion, faced her across the table.
I just interviewed President Zelenskyy at Mariinsky Palace in Ukraine, she wrote afterwards on X. No questions were off limits and I didn’t pull any punches. Full interview coming soon. She added a lighter note: President Zelenskyy even wore a suit for me today.
The photograph she posted showed the two of them together in the grand room, the weight of the building pressing down like history itself. Loomer had arrived in Ukraine carrying months of sharp public criticism. She had called the country corrupt, questioned its leadership, opposed American aid. Russian messaging had shaped her view, she later admitted. Then the air raid sirens cut through the Kyiv night and something shifted.
It is really important that Laura Loomer is in Ukraine and sees things with her own eyes as they are. It takes courage to come to Ukraine and not be deterred by Russian propaganda or air raid sirens. Thank you, Laura.
Those were the words from Zelenskyy’s office, posted on X shortly after her arrival. They understood the value of a sceptic who changes position only after breathing the dust and hearing the explosions. Dmytro Lytvyn, the president’s spokesperson, confirmed the meeting had taken place but made clear no Ukrainian government body had organised it. They first learned of her presence, he said, through social media.
Loomer had reversed course after experiencing the reality on the ground. She visited the Dormition Cathedral of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a place still bearing the scars of recent Russian drone strikes. What she saw contradicted the narrative she once trusted. Russia and Putin, she concluded, were the ones working against both American and Ukrainian interests. The admission carried the quiet sting of having been wrong in public.
