US President Donald Trump questioned whether Russian leader Vladimir Putin wants a peace deal, shortly after meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in the heart of the Vatican minutes before the start of the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday.
Saturday marked the first face-to-face encounter between Trump and Zelensky since a disastrous White House meeting in February, when the president and other US officials publicly berated Zelensky for being insufficiently grateful for US support and briefly suspended arms shipments and intelligence sharing.
The White House has since mounted an increasingly urgent push to strike a peace deal in Ukraine.
Photographs released by the Ukrainian presidency showed the two leaders huddled in close discussion without aides in the ornate surroundings of St. Peter’s Basilica.
Zelensky thanked Trump for the “good meeting” in a post on social media.
“We discussed a lot one on one. Hoping for results on everything we covered,” Zelensky wrote. “Protecting lives of our people. Full and unconditional ceasefire. Reliable and lasting peace that will prevent another war from breaking out. Very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results.”
A White House spokesman accompanying Trump said that the two leaders “met privately today and had a very productive discussion.” Officials from both Zelensky’s camp and Trump’s said the meeting lasted for about 15 minutes, and the leaders agreed to continue talks.
In a Truth Social post sent as he returned from Rome after the meeting, Trump raised the prospect of applying new sanctions on Russia after its assault on Kyiv last week, questioning whether Putin is interested in peace.
“There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days,” Trump wrote. “It makes me think that maybe he 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?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
How the pope’s funeral format allowed for Trump-Zelensky talk
The meeting occurred just outside the Baptistry Chapel, which is inside St. Peter’s Basilica near its entrance, and the talk hadn’t been telegraphed in advance.
Ahead of the US president’s brief visit to Rome, officials had downplayed the prospect he would meet with Zelensky or any other world leaders, pointing to the truncated time frame for the trip and its solemn purpose of memorializing the late pope.
Trump had originally selected Saudi Arabia for his first stop abroad of his new term and will visit there next month. But when Francis died those plans changed, and instead Trump made his first foreign stop in Europe, a continent he’s railed against frequently.
The seating chart and crush of fellow leaders made brief interactions possible, including with leaders Trump had seemingly been avoiding since taking office. He engaged briefly with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, with whom he hadn’t spoken at all since returning to office amid trade and defense disputes with the European Union.
The seating protocol — arranged alphabetically by country name in French — dictated Trump’s position alongside the Estonian and Finnish leaders, with whom he interacted briefly.
