Trump, Zelensky meet on sidelines of pope’s funeral
Trump pushed for the Russian and Ukrainian leaders to meet after what he said was progress in talks.
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Daily TribuneTrump pushed for the Russian and Ukrainian leaders to meet after what he said was progress in talks.
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AFP
ROME, Italy (AFP) — Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky met briefly at Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday, their aides said.
Trump was rubbing shoulders with dozens of world leaders at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome but it was the meeting with Zelensky that drew the most interest as the US leader pushes the Ukrainian to make a peace deal with Russia.
The two leaders met briefly on the sidelines of the funeral before it started, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian presidency said.
“The meeting took place and is already over,” Zelensky’s spokesperson Sergiy Nykyforov told journalists without providing further detail.
White House communications director Steven Cheung also confirmed the meeting occured, calling it “a very productive discussion” and saying more details would follow.
Trump and Zelensky, both accompanied by their wives, sat in the front row of the funeral in St. Peter’s Square but were separated by nearly a dozen leaders. Zelensky glanced Trump’s way but they were not seen to meet in public.
Arriving in Rome late Friday, Trump pushed for the 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.
Putin on Friday discussed the “possibility” of direct talks with Ukraine in a meeting with US envoy Steve Witkoff.
Trump has also pushed Zelensky to accept previously unpalatable concessions such as acknowledging that Crimea, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014, will remain in Russian hands under any deal to stop the conflict.
But Zelensky again rejected suggestions that Ukraine give up Crimea.
“Our position is unchanged: only the Ukrainian people have the right to decide which territories are Ukrainian. The constitution of Ukraine says that all the temporarily occupied territories... belong to Ukraine, to the Ukrainian people,” Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv on Friday.
“Ukraine will not legally recognize any temporarily occupied territories,” he added.
“This is not our property, not my property. This is the property of the Ukrainian people who exist today, who will be born for generations to come, who will contribute to the development of our country,” he said, referring to territory, including Crimea, seized by Moscow.
Trump has said that Ukraine “lost” Crimea “years ago” and that Kyiv did not fight for Crimea in 2014.
