Trump’s meeting with Zelensky offers Ukrainians a glow of hope

President Trump’s position among Ukrainians is practically supporting life. But many applauded a statement he made on Saturday after meeting President Volodymyr Zelensky, wondering why President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia would continue to beat Ukraine while the United States is trying to negotiate peace talks.

“It makes me think that he may not want to stop war, he just makes me exploit,” said Mr. Trump on Truth Social after meeting Mr. Zelensky on the sidelines of the funeral of Pope Francis, adding that Mr. Putin may have to be “treated differently”-with more sanctions.

The events of the day were a kind of victory for Mr. Zelensky and Ukraine at a critical time of the war, which began with the large-scale invasion of Russia in February 2022. The United States pushed Ukraine to accept a peace plan which seems partly a gift in Moscow. The proposal would force kyiv to abandon his aspirations to join NATO, to offer Ukraine only waves guarantees of security and to see the United States officially recognize Crimea as Russian. Ukraine rejected this agreement, which the Trump administration had described as its final offer.

But now the Ukrainians see a little glimmer of hope that Mr. Trump will not try to force Ukraine to a unbalanced peace plan. He appeared for the first time during the fallout from a massive attack of Russian missiles against the capital of Ukraine early Thursday which killed 12 people and injured almost 90. “Vladimir, stop!” Trump posted on Truth Social, in a rare reprimand by Mr. Putin.

And then, the hope grew slightly on Saturday when Mr. Zelensky managed to struggle for about 15 minutes with Mr. Trump in Rome. The photos published by the Ukrainian government have shown the two men seated on chairs and leaning on each other, speaking like equals – a very different scene from a disastrous meeting in the oval office at the end of February which ended with the brutal departure of Mr. Zelensky from the White House and the temporary freezing of all American help.

The photos of Rome “were extraordinary,” said Volodymyr Dubovyk, director of the Center for International Studies at the National University of Odesa II Mechnikov.