{"id":72267,"date":"2025-05-03T22:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T22:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/72267\/"},"modified":"2025-05-03T22:28:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T22:28:08","slug":"zelensky-says-talks-with-trump-at-vatican-best-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/72267\/","title":{"rendered":"Zelensky says talks with Trump at Vatican ‘best’ yet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Volodymyr Zelensky has said his meeting with Donald Trump<\/a> at the Vatican was the \u201cmost substantive\u201d conversation the two have had so far.<\/p>\n

The pair reportedly covered a wide range of topics, from Russian sanctions to a proposed 30-day ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow, during their 15-minute meeting on the sidelines of Pope Francis\u2019s funeral<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith all due respect to our teams, the one-on-one format, in my opinion, worked,\u201d Zelensky said, according to Interfax-Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had the right atmosphere for the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The discussion at St Peter\u2019s Basilica marked the first in-person meeting between the two leaders since their heated exchange at the White House in February<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Moscow has said it is awaiting Kyiv\u2019s \u201cfinal\u201d response to a three-day ceasefire proposal laid out by Russian President Vladimir Putin<\/a>, the TASS news agency reported on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia\u2019s proposed truce, which would span from 7 to 9 May, amounts to \u201ca test of Kyiv\u2019s readiness for long-term peace\u201d.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s everything you need to know about what Trump and Zelensky\u2019s meeting means for Ukraine as well as Russia\u2019s proposed three-day truce.<\/strong><\/p>\n

How did Zelensky\u2019s meeting with Trump shift peace negotiations?<\/p>\n

During the two leaders\u2019 meeting at St Peter\u2019s Basilica, Zelensky said they agreed a 30-day ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow was the best first step towards peace in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Zelensky<\/a> added that he brought up the topic of Russian sanctions with the US President, claiming Trump\u2019s view on the matter is \u201cvery strong\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian President said he believes the meeting may have shifted Trump\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am confident that after our meeting in the Vatican, President Trump began to look at things a bit differently,\u201d he said, according to Interfax-Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\"VATICANZelensky (right) briefly met with French President Emmanuel Macron (left), Keir Starmer (second left) and Trump during Pope Francis\u2019s funeral (Photo: Office of Ukrainian Presidential Press Service via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see. It\u2019s his vision, his choice in any case,\u201d Zelensky said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we behaved constructively and with integrity, and that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zelensky also dismissed Russia\u2019s proposals for a three-day truce on Saturday, claiming the move was a mere \u201ctheatrical performance\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThey kill until the 7th, pause for a couple of comfortable days, then start attacking again on the 11th.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Interfax, Zelensky rejected the Kremlin\u2019s so-called \u201chumanitarian truce\u201d because it is \u201cimpossible to build any plan for the next steps to end the war in two or three days\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added that Kyiv is willing to begin the 30-day truce \u2013 initially proposed by Trump\u2019s special envoy Steve Witkoff \u2013 at any time, be it\u00a0\u201cthe 1st, 3rd, 5th, or if [Putin] needs the 7th\u201d.<\/p>\n

Russia stymied the 30-day ceasefire plan by calling for far-reaching conditions, including a ban Western weapons supplies to Kyiv as well as assurance Ukraine will not use the pause to regroup and rearm.<\/p>\n

How did the meeting in the Vatican shape the Ukraine-US minerals deal?<\/p>\n

Zelensky has previously\u00a0said<\/a> the signing of a long-awaited US-Ukraine\u00a0minerals\u00a0deal was the first tangible result of the meeting in the Vatican, calling it a \u201chistoric\u201d outcome.<\/p>\n

The deal would give the US access to some of the war-torn country\u2019s natural resources \u2013 including its minerals as well as oil, natural gas and other hydrocarbons.<\/p>\n

While the US will get joint access to the resources, they will remain under Ukrainian ownership.<\/p>\n

\nUkraine destroys Russian fighter jet from sea drone for \u2018first time\u2019<\/p>\n

Ukraine destroyed a Russian fighter jet using a missile fired from a seaborne drone, the Ukrainian GUR military intelligence agency has reported.<\/p>\n

The agency claims the attack marked the world\u2019s first downing of a combat plane by a maritime drone<\/p>\n

The jet was reportedly shot down by a military intelligence unit on Friday over waters near Novorossiisk, a major Russian port city on the Black Sea.<\/p>\n

The mayor of Novorossiisk declared a state of emergency on Saturday after local authorities said a Ukrainian drone attack had damaged a grain terminal and several residential buildings, injuring five people.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s seaborne drones have also wrought havoc on Russia\u2019s Black Sea fleet.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A fund to manage investments and hold profits will be established as part of the deal.<\/p>\n

Zelensky said on Saturday that the money would, at least initially, be reinvested and not leave Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly if the parties then, in the future, agree that in 20 years the fund is fine, things are being built, there is production,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Zelensky also hopes that more investment will be directed into Ukraine\u2019s air defences, which remains one of Kyiv\u2019s main requests to its allies throughout the war. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so we are ready for air defence systems to be a contribution (to the fund). I told him about the number (of systems that we need) \u2013 he told me that they will work on it, (that) these things are not free.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Volodymyr Zelensky has said his meeting with Donald Trump at the Vatican was the \u201cmost substantive\u201d conversation the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[32,2000,299,7661,657,19276],"class_list":{"0":"post-72267","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","12":"tag-ukraine","13":"tag-vatican"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114446264096709644","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}