Prince William’s diplomatic manouevring at the Pope’s funeral that helped Donald Trump, Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron hold a three-way discussion with Volodymyr Zelensky has been revealed.
The Prince of Wales attended Saturday’s ceremony at the Vatican, alongside world leaders including the US and Ukrainian presidents.
He is now being hailed for a subtle movement which helped pave the way for follow-up discussions between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky.
It was the first head-to-head between the two presidents since their fractious clash, also involving US Vice-President JD Vance, at the White House in Washington DC earlier this year.
Mr Zelensky hailed Saturday’s summit on the sidelines of the Pope’s funeral as a ‘good meeting that has the potential to become historic’, while the White House said it was ‘very productive’.
The meeting between the two leaders was brokered as part of the gathering following the death of Pope Francis, aged 88, on Monday last week.
William’s involvement in Saturday’s occasion included walking alongside Sir Keir in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome for the service.
But he crucially chose to discreetly step aside from a huddle that formed between the political leaders including not only Sir Keir, Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky but also France’s prime minister Emmanuel Macron.
William ‘respectfully peeled away’ to let the PM and his colleagues pursue their talks which were then followed by the sitdown between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky.
The Prince of Wales is said to have cannily ‘read the room’ as he moved away.
Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky were then pictured having their own talks on chairs in the middle of St Peter’s Basilica ahead of the funeral ceremony.
White House communications director Steven Cheung later said: ‘President Trump and President Zelensky met privately today and had a very productive discussion.’
Kensington Palace had confirmed last Tuesday that William would travel to the Vatican for the funeral.
The decision was in keeping with modern tradition and has been deemed a major milestone in William’s role as a global statesman and future king.
Charles as the Prince of Wales went to Pope John Paul II’s funeral, representing his mother the late Queen, in 2005.
The late Queen Elizabeth II never attended the funeral of a pontiff, the head of the Roman Catholic Church.
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Zelensky said of last Saturday’s talks with Mr Trump: ‘Good meeting. We discussed a lot one on one. Hoping for results on everything we covered.
‘Protecting lives of our people. Full and unconditional ceasefire. Reliable and lasting peace that will prevent another war from breaking out.
‘Very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results. Thank you.’
There had been suggestions that Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky would speak again following the Pope’s funeral.
But those were ruled out as the US president headed immediately for Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci International Airport with his First Lady Melania to return to the US on board Air Force One.
Mr Trump has since said he believes Mr Zelensky is ready to give up Crimea in order to secure peace terms with Russia.
He told reporters in New Jersey yesterday, ‘Oh, I think so,’ when asked whether he thought his Ukrainian counterpart was ready to ‘give up’ the territory.
Mr Trump said that during their talks at St. Peter’s Basilica they had ‘briefly’ discussed the fate of the Black Sea peninsula that was invaded by Vladimir Putin’s Russia in 2014.
He also insisted that President Putin should ‘stop shooting’ and sign an agreement to end the grinding war following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
He said of Mr Putin last Sunday: ‘I want him to stop shooting, sit down, and sign a deal. We have the confines of a deal, I believe, and I want him to sign it.’
Analysts have warned that Mr Trump’s proposed peace plan for Ukraine, which includes recognising Russian authority over Crimea, would require constitutional changes and could amount to treason.
Mr Zelensky echoed the sentiment over the weekend, rejecting any suggestion his country would hand over the region to Moscow.
Speaking to reporters, he said: ‘Our position is unchanged: only the Ukrainian people have the right to decide which territories are Ukrainian.
‘The Constitution of Ukraine states that all temporarily occupied territories are temporarily occupied. They all belong to Ukraine, to the Ukrainian people,’ he said.
‘Ukraine will not legally recognize any temporarily occupied territories. I think this is an absolutely fair position.
‘It is legal not only from the point of view of the Constitution of Ukraine, but also from the point of view of international law.’
Kyiv has reiterated its desire to end the war in Ukraine, but warned it must have security guarantees to avoid Russia reopening the conflict at a later date.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Sergey Lavrov said last week that Moscow was ‘ready to reach a deal’ with the mediating US to end the war in Ukraine.
But he insisted some elements of a proposed deal still needed to be ‘fine tuned’.
In the tense White House clash between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky in February, the Ukrainian president was accused of not being thankful enough for US military aid.
But their friendlier interaction last Saturday has been celebrated as Pope Francis’ last ‘miracle’.
Mr Trump appeared to turn against former ally Mr Putin, accusing the Russian despot of ‘stringing him along’ over Ukraine peace talks following Russia’s latest deadly missile strikes against Kyiv.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News: ‘It was also moving to see what they are now calling “Pope Francis’s miracle” with Trump and Zelensky meeting, there’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.’
The day after the Pope’s funeral, Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social website: ‘There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days.
‘It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently.’
The latest Russian military strikes on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv had killed 12 people and left several buildings destroyed.