Both the White House and Zelenskyy’s office confirmed the meeting, which took place today in the hours before both men joined other world leaders and an estimated 200,000 Catholic faithful to farewell Pope Francis in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican.
The Ukrainian Presidency shared striking images of the pair, seated without aides on relatively simple chairs amid the ornate surroundings of St Peter’s Basilica.
Although no recordings were released, the apparently serious but civil meeting appeared to be a marked departure from the last time the pair met, when Trump and his Vice President JD Vance castigated the Ukrainian leader for not being sufficiently “thankful”.
“You’re not really in a good position right now.” Trump said at the time.
“You’re gambling with World War III.”
White House communications director Steven Cheung said the leaders “met privately today and had a very productive discussion” and that more details would follow.
Zelenskyy’s spokesperson, Serhii Nykyforov, said they met for about 15 minutes at St Peter’s Basilica and agreed to continue negotiations later in the day. Teams were working to organise the follow-up conversation.
Trump arrived at the Vatican with his wife, first lady Melania Trump, and was seated in the front row, not far from French President Emmanuel Macron, for the outdoor service.
Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, both outspoken backers of Ukraine and key figures in European efforts for peace, were also pictured meeting with Trump and Zelenskyy.
After Trump was shown to his seat for the funeral, he was immediately followed out of St Peter’s Basilica by Zelenskyy, who was met with a burst of applause from the audience.
The US-Ukraine meeting came amid an increasingly urgent White House effort to strike a peace deal.
Trump posted on Truth Social shortly after arriving in Rome that Ukraine and Russia should meet for “very high level talks” on ending the bloody three-year war sparked by Russia’s invasion.
His envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, and Trump said both sides were “very close to a deal”. Putin did not attend the funeral.
Trump’s meeting with Zelenskyy also came shortly after Trump issued his most definitive statement yet about the need for Ukraine to give up territory to Russia to bring the war to a close.
He said in a Time magazine interview published on Friday that “Crimea will stay with Russia”.
Russia seized the strategic peninsula along the Black Sea in southern Ukraine in 2014, years before the full-scale invasion that began in 2022.
Zelenskyy wants to regain Crimea and other Ukrainian territory seized by Russia, but that demand has become a sticking point for Trump.
Referring to Crimea during the interview, which was conducted at the White House on Tuesday, Trump said, “everybody understands that it’s been with them for a long time”.
– Reported with Associated Press and CNN
