Cnn
–
US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had crunch war talks in the Vatican’s heart a few minutes before the start of Pope Francis funeral on Saturday, while the White House rises an increasingly urgent push to conclude a peace agreement in Ukraine.
The photographs published by the Ukrainian Presidency have shown that the two leaders huddled in a narrow discussion without aid in the environment decorated with the Saint-Pierre basilica.
A spokesperson for the White House accompanying Trump said that the two leaders “met in private today and had a very productive discussion”. A spokesperson for Zelensky said that the meeting had lasted approximately 15 minutes and that the leaders agreed to continue the talks, perhaps later on Saturday.
It was the first face -to -face meeting between Trump and Zelensky from a disastrous meeting of the White House in February, when the president and other US officials publicly reprimanded Zelensky to have been insufficiently grateful for American support and weapons expeditions and the sharing of intelligence.
The United States applied more pressure on Ukraine after threatening last week, it could move away from talks “in a few days” if it becomes clear that an agreement cannot be concluded.
Trump said on Friday that Russia and Ukraine are “very close to an agreement” which would end the conflict, which Russia launched in 2014 and intensified with its large -scale invasion of its neighbor in 2022.
“A good day in talks and meetings with Russia and Ukraine. They are very close to an agreement, and the two parties should now meet, at very high levels, to” finish “, wrote Trump on Truth Social after landing in Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday for three hours, according to Russian presidential aid Yuri Ushakov, who said the talks were “constructive and very useful”.
Before leaving kyiv for Rome on Friday, Zelensky suggested a certain number of compromises in order to advance peace talks.
“In the coming days, very important meetings may take place-meetings that should bring us closer to the silence of Ukraine,” he said.
“We are ready for dialogue, I underline again, in any format with anyone,” he said, but “only after a real signal that Russia is ready to put an end to war. Such a signal is a complete and unconditional cease-fire.”
Kyiv and Moscow have not gathered directly since the first weeks of the invasion of Moscow in February 2022 of his smallest neighbor. Any direct talks would probably require a more in -depth discussion and add a delay to diplomacy that the Trump administration hoped would give results in a few days.
Accepting that Ukraine would not join NATO in the foreseeable future, he said: “I think we have to be pragmatic. We must understand what guarantees the safety of Ukraine needs.”
Zelensky said these guarantees could include a military quota in Europe and what he called a “security net” in the United States.
“For us, the safety net should not necessarily be boots in the field in Ukraine,” said Zelensky, but could include cyber defense “and especially patriotic air defense systems.”
Thursday, Kyiv was struck by the largest wave of Russian missile strikes since July of last year. Twelve people were killed.
Zelensky also spoke on Friday of what he called “constructive” proposals written in London this week between Ukrainian and European officials.
A copy of these proposals was obtained by Reuters. Entitled “Ukraine Deal Framework”, he offers a complete and unconditional ceasefire in the sky, on land and at sea, as Ukraine previously accepted.
Surveillance of the ceasefire would be led by the United States and supported by third countries, according to the project obtained by Reuters. CNN has confirmed its content.
The proposed Ukraine project would receive “robust security guarantees, including the United States … although there is no consensus among allies to NATO membership”. These would be similar to those of article 5 of NATO, under which all members are forced to help an attacked nation.
Part of the project which is likely to be opposed by Moscow indicates that “the guarantee states will be an ad hoc group of European countries and non -European volunteer countries”. There would be “no restriction on the presence, weapons and operations of friendly foreign forces on the territory of Ukraine”, nor on the size of the Ukrainian army.
The project indicates that negotiations on the territory would begin after the entry into force of the ceasefire and that their starting point would be the first current lines. But this adds that Ukraine would regain control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has been occupied by Russian forces since March 2022.
On the mineral agreement offered between the United States and Ukraine, which would give the United States access to billions of rare metals, the project indicates that Ukraine will be fully financially compensated, including through Russian assets which will remain frozen until Russia compensates for damage to Ukraine.
Moscow is also likely to oppose this.
The project obtained by Reuters does not specifically mention Crimea. Witkoff’s plan proposed in the United States to recognize Crimea as part of Russia, but did not suggest that Ukraine should also do it. Recognizing Russian Crimea control, which Moscow annexed illegally in 2014, would cross a major red line for Ukraine and its European allies, and is in violation of established international law.
Zelensky rejected the idea, claiming that there was “nothing to say” because such recognition would be against the Constitution of Ukraine. He told journalists on Friday: “I agree with President Trump that Ukraine does not have enough weapons to regain control of the Crimean Peninsula by force of arms. But the world has opportunities for sanctions, other economic pressure.”
CNN reported this week that Trump was frustrated by dropout talks and declared the advisers in private that the mediation of an agreement was more difficult than it had planned.
