Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky proclaimed that his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the funeral for Pope Francis has the “potential to become historic”.
Zelensky met with President Trump in St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican after joining other world leaders in paying their respects to the Pope. A photograph of the meeting showed Trump and Zelensky sitting opposite each other in chairs within the grand sixteenth-century church.
The meeting came amid increasing tensions between Washington and Kyiv, which has so far baulked at the peace deal framework laid out by Trump administration negotiators, likely including Ukraine ceding land to Russia, which Zelensky has claimed is a non-starter despite having failed to have won back the land over the past three years of war.
The White House said that the meeting between the two leaders took place for around 15 minutes and was “very productive”, with more details to be published later on Saturday.
For his party, Zelensky wrote on X: “Good meeting. We discussed a lot one on one. Hoping for results on everything we covered. Protecting lives of our people. Full and unconditional ceasefire. Reliable and lasting peace that will prevent another war from