Zelensky and Trump hold ‘very productive’ talks at Vatican

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump have met inside St Peter’s Basilica ahead of Pope Francis’s funeral.

The White House described the 15-minute meeting as “very productive” and Zelensky later called it “very symbolic” with the “potential to become historic”.

Trump and Zelensky were pictured sitting locked in deep discussion, minutes before the late pontiff’s funeral was due to start.

The meeting came a day after Trump said Russia and Ukraine were “very close to a deal”, following talks between his envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday.

Posting an image of Zelensky sitting with Trump, the Ukrainian leader’s head of office Andriy Yermak added a single word, “constructive”.

The two leaders had not seen each other face-to-face since their tempestuous Oval Office meeting at the end of February, when Trump told Zelensky “you don’t have the cards” and he was not winning against Russia.

He repeated that message this week, saying the Ukrainian leader had “no cards to play”.

Trump has previously blamed Ukraine for starting the war and has accused Zelensky multiple times of being an obstacle to peace negotiations.

But posting from his Truth social account after leaving Rome, Trump took aim at the Russian president saying there was “no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas”, in reference to Russian strikes on Kyiv earlier this week.

Trump added: “It makes me think that maybe he [Putin] doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?'”

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had confirmed Russia’s readiness to enter into direct talks with Ukraine “without preconditions” in a meeting with Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff on Friday.

Putin aide Yuri Ushakov had described Witkoff’s fourth visit to Russia this year as “very useful” and that it had brought “Russian and US positions closer together, not just on Ukraine but also on a range of other international issues”.

In Rome, two images were released of Zelensky and Trump’s one-on-one meeting ahead of the Pope’s funeral.

The US leader was pictured in a blue suit while Ukraine’s president wore a black top and trousers. The two men are seen sitting opposite each other having an intense conversation and holding serious expressions.

Zelensky described the sit down as a “very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results”.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also posted the image on X with the caption: “No words are needed to describe the importance of this historic meeting. Two leaders working for peace in St. Peter’s Basilica.”

Another image posted by the Ukrainian delegation from inside St Peter’s showed the two men standing alongside British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and France’s Emmanuel Macron, his hand on Zelensky’s shoulder.

The implication was that the prime minister and French president had helped to bring the two together, against the sombre backdrop of the funeral.

After the meeting, Trump and Zelensky then walked down the steps of the basilica, where Zelensky’s arrival was met with applause from the crowds, and took their seats in the front row.

During the service, the pair sat a short distance from each other, with Macron and other heads of state in between.

In his homily, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re spoke of Pope Francis’s incessant calls for peace. “‘Build bridges, not walls’ was an exhortation he repeated many times,” said the cardinal.

Ukrainian officials had talked of a possible second meeting but Trump’s motorcade drove away from St Peter’s immediately afterwards and his plane left Rome a short time later.

Zelensky however was pictured holding separate meetings with Macron and Sir Keir after the funeral, and he is also reportedly set to meet with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

In a post on X, Macron said ending the war in Ukraine was an objective that “we share in common with President Trump”, adding that Ukraine was ready for “an unconditional ceasefire”.

A Downing Street spokesperson said Starmer and Zelensky discussed the positive progress that had been made recently to “secure a just and lasting peace in Ukraine,” adding that the pair had agreed to “maintain momentum” and “speak again at the earliest opportunity”.

During February’s heated White House exchange, Trump accused the Ukrainian president of “gambling with World War Three” by not going along with ceasefire plans led by Washington.

Kyiv has been on the receiving end of growing pressure from Trump to accept territorial concessions as part of an agreement with Moscow to end the war.

These concessions would reportedly include giving up large portions of land, including the Crimean peninsula which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Zelensky has repeatedly rejected the idea in the past. He suggested to the BBC on Friday that “a full and unconditional ceasefire opens up the possibility to discuss everything”.