President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met in Rome on Saturday ahead of Pope Francis’ funeral.
‘President Trump and President Zelenskyy met privately today and had a very productive discussion. More details about the meeting will follow,’ Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, said in a statement.
The two men talked in private at the Vatican before heading out to St. Peter’s Square for the funeral mass.
Neither Trump nor Zelensky interacted before the cameras trained on them before the service started.
Trump mingled with the prime minister of Portugal, EU leader Ursula von der Leyen, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. His wife Melania stood at his side.
Zelensky sat further down the front row, seated quietly by his wife.
The leaders met at a critical time in negotiations to end the war with Russia.
Trump has been pressing both sides to agree a ceasefire, including pressuring Ukraine to give up the Crimea to Russia.
The president said on Friday that there had been productive talks between his envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He called for a high-level meeting between Kyiv and Moscow to close a deal.
Trump had previously warned both sides his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.
He has taken a tough stand with both leaders, taking to social media earlier this week to write ‘Vladimir STOP’ as the Russian president dropped bombs on Kyiv.
He has threatened Zelensky that he will withdraw all U.S. support.
The meeting in Rome is the first face-to-face encounter between Trump and Zelenskiy since an Oval Office meeting in February that turned into a shouting match.
Following that meeting, the United States cut off intelligence cooperation with Ukraine, which is critical to its efforts to stave off Russian attacks, though this was later restored.
Arriving in Rome late Friday to attend the funeral of Pope Francis, Trump pushed for Russian and Ukrainian leaders to meet after what he said was progress in talks.
‘They are very close to a deal, and the two sides should now meet, at very high levels, to ‘finish it off’,’ he posted on his Truth Social platform.
‘Most of the major points are agreed to,’ he said.