'Our best conversation yet' — Zelensky praises Vatican meeting with Trump
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his recent meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the Vatican was the most productive conversation the two have had to date, Interfax-Ukraine reported on May 3.
Speaking to journalists in a closed-door session, Zelensky described the April 26 meeting, which took place during a visit to pay respects to the late Pope Francis, as “perhaps the shortest, but the most substantive.”
Zelensky reportedly urged Trump to return to his original proposal of an unconditional ceasefire as the starting point for peace talks, a move Kyiv has supported but Moscow has rejected.
The discussion marked the first in-person meeting between the two leaders since their tense February encounter in the Oval Office, during which Trump and Vice President JD Vance sharply criticized Zelensky over what they described as “a lack of gratitude for U.S. support.”
"With all due respect to our teams, the one-on-one format, in my opinion, worked. We had the right atmosphere for the conversation," Zelensky said.
Zelensky added that he believes the meeting may have shifted Trump’s perspective.
"I am confident that after our meeting in the Vatican, President Trump began to look at things a bit differently. We’ll see. It’s his vision, his choice in any case. I think we behaved constructively and with integrity, and that matters," Zelensky said.
Previously, Ukraine's president said that the signing of a long-awaited U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal was the first concrete result of his recent meeting with Trump in the Vatican, calling it a “historic” outcome of their April 26 conversation.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
