Trump questions Putin’s desire for peace after meeting Zelensky at the Vatican

Donald Trump questioned Vladimir Putin’s desire to end the war in Ukraine after his meeting with the chief of the Volodymyr Zelensky country on the sidelines of the funeral of Pope Francis.

Publishing on social networks after leaving Rome, Trump said that he feared that Putin could “approach” after the Moscow strikes on kyiv earlier this week, adding that there was “no reason for Putin to pull missiles in civil zones”.

Earlier in the day, Trump and Zelensky were seen in a deep discussion in the Saint-Pierre basilica shortly before the start of the funeral.

The White House described the 15 -minute meeting with Zelensky as “very productive”. The Ukrainian president said he had the “potential to become historic”.

It was the first face -to -face meeting of Trump with the Ukrainian president since the acrimonious confrontation of the oval office of February.

Writing on his social account of truth, Trump said that the Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities “make me think that he may not want to stop war, he simply makes me support and must be treated differently, by` `bank ” or” secondary sanctions? “”.

Trump had previously said that Russia and Ukraine were “very close to an agreement” after the three -hour Friday talks between his envoy Steve Witkoff and the Russian president.

The Kremlin said on Saturday that Putin had confirmed to Witkoff the preparation of Russia to participate in direct talks with “undocumented” Ukraine.

Trump and Zelensky sit in Rome were the first time that the leaders met face to face from their White House meeting, when Trump said in Zelensky you don’t have the cards “and he was not winning against Russia.

He repeated this message this week, saying that the Ukrainian leader had “no playing cards”. Trump has already accused Ukraine of having launched the war and accused Zelensky repeatedly of being an obstacle to peace negotiations.

But the White House took a more positive tone about the meeting on Saturday, while Zelensky described the sit-down as a “very symbolic meeting which has the potential to become historic, if we obtain joint results”.

Two images were published in the meeting, showing the American leader in a blue costume and the Ukrainian president in a top and black pants, sitting in front of the other in an intense conversation.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Andrii Sybiha, also published an image of Reunion 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 the British Prime Minister 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 funeral.

After La Réunion, Trump and Zelensky 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, the pair was seated at a short distance from each other, with Macron and other state heads 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, later met Macron in the garden of Villa Bonaparte, which houses the French Embassy in the Holy See.

He also met Sir Keir at Villa Wolkonsky, the residence of the British ambassador, as well as separate discussions with the president of the EU commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

In an article on X, Macron said that the end of the war in Ukraine was an objective that “we are sharing in common with President Trump”, adding that Ukraine was ready for “an unconditional ceasefire”.

A Downing Street spokesperson said that Starmer and Zelensky had discussed the positive progress that had been made recently to “guarantee just and lasting peace in Ukraine”, adding that the pair had agreed to “maintain the momentum” and to “speak again at the first opportunity”.

During the stormy exchange of the February White House, Trump accused the Ukrainian president of “playing with the Second World War” By not accompanying 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”.