Donald Trump meets Ukraine's Zelensky briefly for ‘very productive discussion’ ahead of Pope Francis' funeral

US President Donald Trump had a “very productive discussion” with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday as he tries to broker a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow, a White House official said.

The meeting came ahead of the funeral of Pope Francis in Vatican City on Saturday, a Reuters report said. 

White House communications director Steven Cheung said that the two leaders “met privately today and had a very productive discussion”. Cheung further said, “More details about the meeting will follow.”

Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy met for around 15 minutes at the Vatican on Saturday and agreed to meet again later the same day for further talks, a spokesman for the Ukrainian leader also said, the report added.

The White House released a photo of the meeting, stating, “President Trump sat down to meet privately with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City this morning.”

This is the first face-to-face conversation between Trump and Zelenskyy since the two, along with US Vice President JD Vance, argued during a heated Oval Office meeting in late February.

Trump calls for ‘very high level talks’

Shortly after arriving in Rome to attend Pope Francis's funeral, US President Donald Trump on Friday called for Ukraine and Russia to meet for “very high level talks," saying they are “very close to a deal” on ending the three-year war.

In a post on his Truth Social site, Trump said it was a “good day in talks and meetings with Russia and Ukraine.” His envoy, Steve Witkoff, had visited Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

“They are very close to a deal, and the two sides should now meet, at very high levels, to ‘finish it off,’” Trump wrote. “Most of the major points are agreed to. Stop the bloodshed, NOW. We will be wherever is necessary to help facilitate the END to this cruel and senseless war!”

On the same day, an interview was published, where Trump was quoted as saying that “Crimea with stay with Russia." “And Zelensky understands that, and everybody understands that it’s been with them for a long time. It’s been with them long before Trump came along,” an AP report quoted Trump as saying.

Zelenskyy did not want to respond to Trump's statements on Crimea but repeated that recognising occupied Ukrainian territory as Russian is a red line for his country, the report said.

Even as senior US officials warn that the administration could soon give up attempts to stop the war, President Donald Trump on Friday said that negotiators are “pretty close to a deal” and that he wanted to “do it as fast as possible."

Trump's enovy meets Putin

Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, their second meeting this month and fourth since February. Witkoff's meeting trip with the death of a senior Russian military officer in a car bomb near Moscow.

Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, who attended the talks, said the meeting lasted three hours and was “constructive” and “useful.” Further talks are expected, he said, according to the AP report.

Putin and Witkoff discussed, “in particular, the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between representatives of the Russian Federation and Ukraine,” according to Ushakov. Delegations from the two countries last met in the weeks following Russia's February 2022 invasion of its neighbour, the report added.

(With inputs from agencies)