Photo: Trump, Zelensky meet on sidelines of pope’s funeral

In this handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on April 26, 2025, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) meets with US President Donald Trump (L) on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. (Photo by Handout / UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – MANDATORY CREDIT “AFP PHOTO / UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE” – NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky met briefly at Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday, their aides said, marking their first encounter since a disastrous White House clash as the US president pushes the Ukrainian to make a peace deal with Russia.

Trump was rubbing shoulders with dozens of world leaders at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome keen to bend his ear on the tariffs he has unleashed and other subjects.

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 spokesman for the Ukrainian presidency said.

“The meeting took place and is already over,” Zelensky’s spokesman 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.

Both sides had kept the prospects of a meeting vague ahead of the funeral with Trump saying only it was “possible”.

Tensions have been high since Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Zelensky in the Oval Office on February 28, calling him ungrateful for the billions of dollars of US military assistance given since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.