VATICAN CITY — U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met on Saturday in Rome before Pope Francis’ funeral, the White House has confirmed.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung confirmed the meeting to the press pool traveling with Trump, calling the meeting a “very productive session.”
“President Trump and President Zelenskyy met privately today and had a very productive discussion,” Cheung said.
The encounter is the first meeting between the two men since the disastrous Oval Office blow up in late February — which led to Zelenskyy being asked to leave the White House.
The meeting comes just one day after Trump posted on Truth Social that a deal between Russia and Ukraine was “close” after Special Envoy Steve Witkoff’s meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
“They are very close to a deal, and the two sides should now meet, at very high levels, to “finish it off,” Trump wrote.
“Stop the bloodshed, NOW. We will be wherever is necessary to help facilitate the END to this cruel and senseless war!” Trump added.
The meeting took place and is already over,” Zelensky’s spokesman Sergiy Nykyforov confirmed to reporters.
