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.
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“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 ”
Reported by CNN
