Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky proclaimed that his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the funeral for Pope Francis has the “potential to become historic”.

Zelensky met with President Trump in St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican after joining other world leaders in paying their respects to the Pope. A photograph of the meeting showed Trump and Zelensky sitting opposite each other in chairs within the grand sixteenth-century church.

The meeting came amid increasing tensions between Washington and Kyiv, which has so far baulked at the peace deal framework laid out by Trump administration negotiators, likely including Ukraine ceding land to Russia, which Zelensky has claimed is a non-starter despite having failed to have won back the land over the past three years of war.

The White House said that the meeting between the two leaders took place for around 15 minutes and was “very productive”, with more details to be published later on Saturday.

For his party, Zelensky wrote on X: “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 [President Trump].”

Earlier in the week, President Trump was once again critical of Zelensky, suggesting that the Ukrainian leader was the principal impediment to a peace deal being struck, claiming that Russia is “ready” to sign an armistice agreement.

This came after Zelensky publicly criticised reported aspects of the Trump team’s mooted framework, which was said to have included the United States officially recognising Crimea as Russian territory. Ukraine claims that the peninsula was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014 and that the territory is still rightfully theirs, despite not having controlled the area in over a decade.

President Trump remarked that “Crimea was lost years ago” under Obama and that Zelensky’s comments on Ukraine’s ownership of Crimea were “very harmful to the peace negotiations”.

Senior-level officials in Washington, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance, have warned that if an agreement is not reached soon, the Trump administration will withdraw from the negotiating table.

However, as he touched down in Rome on Friday, President Trump expressed optimism about the progress of talks with Russia and Ukraine in recent days.

“They are very close to a deal, and the two sides should now meet, at very high levels, to ‘finish it off.’ Most of the major points are agreed to. Stop the bloodshed, NOW. We will be wherever is necessary to help facilitate the END to this cruel and senseless war!” he wrote on Truth Social.

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