Last Saturday (April 26), on the eve of Pope Francis’s funeral, Zelensky held a 15-minute meeting with Trump at the Vatican. According to the American news website Axios, two unnamed sources revealed that Zelensky urged Trump to take a tougher stance towards Putin and to reaffirm the ceasefire as a top priority.
Zelensky believed that he had successfully changed Trump’s perception of Putin for the first time. Upon returning to the United States, Trump made rare threats against Putin. Trump wrote on “Truth Social”: “This made me feel like maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just stringing me along, and I need to address it differently, such as with bank sanctions or Level Two sanctions.”
Sources said that Zelensky told Trump that Putin will not back down unless Trump applies more pressure. Trump replied that he might need to change his approach to dealing with Putin, as he later mentioned in a post on “Truth Social”.
Sources also said that Zelensky told Trump that he is willing to make concessions to end the war, but he needs strong security guarantees. Zelensky also urged Trump to continue viewing a “unconditional ceasefire” as the starting point for “peace negotiations”. Previously, Ukraine accepted this proposal, but Russia rejected it. Sources indicated that Trump seemed to agree. Trump, in turn, urged Zelensky to sign the US-Ukraine mining agreement as soon as possible.
The White House neither confirmed nor denied the report, while Zelensky’s spokesperson declined to comment on the specifics of the meeting.
On Tuesday, President Trump recounted his meeting with Zelensky at St. Peter’s Basilica during an exclusive ABC interview at the White House. He said, “In a sense, this meeting was a moment of solace. Because a lot of people are dying. Many of his family members are dying.” “They are being killed, and I feel very sorry about that.”
During the interview, Trump also criticized Putin, saying that there was no reason for him to launch missiles at civilian areas in towns over the past few days. This made him feel that maybe Putin doesn’t want to stop the war, but is using him.
(Translation)