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 Ukrainian leader was able to influence Trump, who appeared to be cosying up with Vladimir Putin since returning to the White House.
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The whole world’s eyes were on Zelensky and Trump at the Vatican City, where both leaders pulled chairs to the side to have a tête-à-tête.
It was the first time they were pictured meeting together since their historic – and disastrous – White House row, 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 took place inside the holy St Peter’s Basilica with both leaders discussing the dragging Russia-Ukraine war, and America’s efforts to put an end to it.
more on Russia-Ukraine war
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.
Zelensky 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.
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“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 “sit down and sign a deal”, 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 engaging in crunch talks with US peace envoy Steve Witkoff.
It came after Putin’s barbaric missile strikes on Kyiv earlier 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.”
US-Ukraine minerals deal explained
By Sayan Bose, Foreign News Reporter
The minerals draft sets out the creation of a joint US-Ukrainian fund for reconstruction, which will receive 50 per cent of profits and royalties accruing to the Ukrainian state from new natural resources permits in Ukraine.
The draft does not spell out how the joint fund’s revenues will be spent, who benefits or who controls decisions about the spending.
Once the main agreement was signed, the two sides would agree on two further technical and supplementary documents outlining issues such as how the funds are accumulated.
Ukraine would retain control of all its resources in the deal, while the fund will invest in the development of Ukraine for 10 years, according to the country’s prime minister Denys Shmyhal.
The U.S could use its future military assistance to Ukraine as its contribution to the fund, Shmyhal said, with no previous military aid to the country reflected in the deal.
“Ukraine will only make a contribution from new licenses, from new royalties on mineral resources. This will be our contribution, 50% of which will be given to this fund,” he added.
A draft of the main minerals agreement showed that Ukraine had secured the removal of any requirement for it to pay back the US for past military assistance, something Ukraine had staunchly opposed.
Washington has been Ukraine’s single largest military donor since Russia’s 2022 invasion, with aid of more than 64 billion euros ($72 billion), according to the Kiel Institute in Germany.
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.”
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