Zelensky and Trump meet inside the St Peter basilica before the funeral of the Pope

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump met in the Saint-Pierre basilica before Pope Francis funeral.

The White House described the 15 -minute meeting as “very productive” and Zelensky described it as “very symbolic” with the “potential to become historic”.

Trump and Zelensky were photographed seated in a deep discussion, a few minutes before the funeral of Pope Francis.

The meeting occurred one day after Trump said that Russia and Ukraine were “very close to an agreement”, after discussions between his envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday.

Position of an image of Zelensky seated with Trump, the chef of the office of the Ukrainian chief Andriy Yermak added a single “constructive” word.

The two leaders had not met since their tumultuous oval office meeting at the White House at the end of February, when Trump told Zelensky that he did not win and “you don’t have the cards”.

He repeated this message this week, saying that the Ukrainian leader had “no playing cards”.

Two images of the men showed Trump in a blue suit, Zelensky wearing a high and black pants – the two men seated in front of the other with an intense conversation and holding serious expressions.

Publication on social networks, Zelensky said They had a “good meeting. We discussed a lot”, adding that he hoped for all that they had said.

He said it was a “very symbolic meeting that had the potential to become historic, if we obtain joint results”.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Andrii Sybiha, also published the image on X with legend: “No word is necessary to describe the importance of this historic meeting. Two leaders working for peace in the Saint-Pierre basilica.”

Another image published by the Ukrainian delegation of the interior of St Peter showed the two men standing alongside Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron of France, his hand on the shoulder of Zelensky.

The involvement was that the Prime Minister and the French President had helped to bring together the two, in the dark context of the Pope’s funeral.

Steven Cheung, director of communications for the White House, said that more details on the private meeting of the Vatican city between Trump and Zelensky would follow.

After the meeting, the two men then descended the steps of the basilica, where the arrival of Zelensky was greeted by the applause of the crowd and took its seats in the front row.

During the service, Zelensky and Trump were seated at a short distance from each other, with Macron and other heads of state between the two.

In his homily, Cardinal Giovanni Battista spoke of incessant calls from Pope Francis in peace. “” Building bridges, not walls “was an exhortation that he repeated several times,” said Cardinal.

Ukrainian officials had spoken of a second possible meeting, but Trump’s motorcycle moved away from St Peter immediately afterwards and his plane left Rome shortly after.

Zelensky, however, attended a meeting with President Macron and should meet the president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

Trump Witkoff’s envoy left Moscow Friday after a fourth visit to Russia since the start of the year, after three hours for talks described later as “very useful” by Putin Help Yuri Ushakov.

Ushakov also added that he had compared the “Russian and American positions, not only on Ukraine but also on a range of other international questions” whose “possibility of taking up the direct talks between the Russian and Ukrainian representatives was in particular discussed”.

During the stormy exchange of the February White House, Trump accused the Ukrainian president of “playing with the Second World War” by not reaching the ceasefire plans led by Washington.

Kyiv was at the end of Trump’s growing pressure to accept territorial concessions as part of an agreement with Moscow to end the war.

These concessions would include what could abandon large parts of land, including the Crimean Peninsula which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Zelensky repeatedly rejected the idea in the past. He suggested to the BBC on Friday that “a complete and unconditional ceasefire opens up the possibility of discussing everything”.