VOLODYMYR Zelensky is said to have urged Donald Trump to take a tougher stance against Russia when the leaders met during Pope Francis’ funeral.
Top US officials revealed that the , who appeared to be since returning to the White House.
The whole world’s eyes were on and at the Vatican City, where both leaders .
It was the first timethey were pictured meeting together since their historic– and disastrous – , which saw a shouting match between them.
However, both presidents agreed to hold a quick, 15-minute one-on-one meeting on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral.
The chat with both leaders discussing the dragging Russia-Ukraine war, and America’s efforts to put an end to it.
Two senior sources familiar with the contents of the meeting told Axios that Zelensky had urged President Trump to take a tougher stance on Putin,
The Ukrainian leader is also said to have retreated his demands for an unconditional ceasefire, which was proposed by the US weeks ago but rejected by the Kremlin.
It is understood that Zelensky told Trump he was ready to make concessions in a bid to bring peace to his war-torn nation, but demanded strong security guarantees in return.
said it was a “good”; 15-minute meeting.
He added: “We discussed a lot one-on-one. Hoping for results on everything we covered. Protecting the lives of our people.
“Full and unconditional ceasefire. Reliable and lasting peace that will prevent another war from breaking out.”;
Sources told Axios that Trump seemed to agree to what Zelensky was asking. The White House didn’t confirm or deny it.
He is said to have replied by saying he might have changed his approach to dealing with Putin, which was visible shortly after their chat.
Just hours after the meeting, Trump slammed Putin for “tapping him along”; during his efforts for peace.
He said: “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, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”;
Trump also ordered Putin to , as he said Ukraine’s battlefields are covered in body parts.
The US and Ukrainian leaders have vowed to hold further talks in the coming days.
Trump said on Sunday he was both “surprised and disappointed, very disappointed”; that mad Vlad continued to bomb Ukraine, despite the dictator
It came afterearlier this week that left at least 12 dead.
ART OF THE DEAL
One of the topics that Trump brought up during the 15-minute chat is understood to be the re-negotiated US-Ukraine minerals deal, which fell apart after the historic Oval Office spat.
Trump is said to have pressed Zelensky to agree to the deal as soon as possible, the sources told Axios.
Ukraine and the US officials said today they were ready to sign a minerals deal imminently after months of sometimes fraught negotiations.
However, an eleventh-hour snag injected uncertainty into the timing.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters at the White House: “Our side is ready to sign. The Ukrainians decided last night to make some last-minute changes.
“We’re sure that they will reconsider that, and we are ready, if they are.”;
A Ukrainian official was on the way to Washington for the signing.
But a source said the US was pushing Ukraine to sign two additional documents and that Kyiv felt it was premature.
Bessent denied the US made any attempt to change the accord the two sides agreed to over the weekend.
The agreement, which would give the United States access to Ukraine’s mineral deposits, is central to Kyiv’s efforts to mend ties with Trump
For the White House, it is a bid to secure a peace settlement in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Two sources said it could happen later on Wednesday.
Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko was flying to the United States to sign the deal, the country’s prime minister said earlier.
Trump repeated on Wednesday that the U.S. should get something for its prior aid to Kyiv, thus the effort to secure a deal for Ukraine’s plentiful deposits of rare earth minerals.
“I assume they’re going to honour the deal. ... We haven’t really seen the fruits of that deal yet. I suspect we will,”; Trump said after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
Ukrainian officials hope that signing the deal promoted by Trump will firm up American support for Kyiv in the more than three-year-old war.
A former Trump advisor told LBC the developing US-Ukraine minerals deal will be a “trip wire”; that Russia will not cross.
He said: “It would engage the American military. It puts the Americans squarely in the middle of the Ukrainian state. It is a trip wire that Putin would dare not to cross.”;
