The funeral of Pope Francis has led to the reunion in the Basilica of San Pedro del Vaticano among the presidents of Ukraine and the United States amid diplomatic efforts to try to bring the end of the war. In an atmosphere of thaw, the two administrations have reacted positively and optimistically to the meeting, although without detailing new appointments or concrete advances.
Maybe it has been the effect of that meeting. Or of the solemn spirit in the Basilica of St. Peter at the funeral by the Pope. Or conversations with NATO allies that surrounded Trump for the finger of the Vatican protocol in the basilica banks. But just hours later, and in full flight of the Air Force One plane that took him back to the United States, the president expressed for the first time – at least in public – his doubts about the true intentions of Vladimir Putin and the will of the Russian president to end the war. After asking if he is “giving long,” he threatened new secondary sanctions and against the banking sector.
“There is no reason for Putin to be throwing missiles against civil, cities and towns, in recent days,” he said. “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to finish war and he is only giving me long. And you have to treat it otherwise. Through bank or secondary sanctions? Too many people are dying!”
The doubts that Trump expressed in his message in networks seemed to collide with the optimism that he had overflowed immediately after his landing in Rome, when in another message in his social network Truth assured that Russia and Ukraine “are very close to an agreement, the two parties should now meet at very high levels to ‘close it’. Most of the main points have already been agreed.”
For about 15 minutes, Volodimir Zelenski and Donald Trump, each seated in a chair in the middle of the temple and surrounded in the distance of advisors and religious, were seen for the first time face to face after which he took the Ukrainian president to leave abruptly.
The US administration has described as “very productive” the conversation that the two leaders have maintained privately and from which the Ukraine Presidency has facilitated the photographs. “Good meeting,” Zelenski valued of a meeting that, he says, could become “historical” if he gives the desired fruits between the different parts.
In a message his social networks after the ceremony in the Plaza de San Pedro, thanked President Trump as he has written: “We have spoken a lot of face to face” and “we expect results of everything addressed.”
In any case, the Ukrainian president does not leave the lane for which he intends to take the negotiations and that demands, first, a truce. That is why he insists on “protecting the life of our people. High total and unconditional fire. A safe and lasting peace that avoids another war. A very symbolic meeting that could become historical if we achieve joint results,” he added.
In some of the images, it is seen even in an impromptu summit of the highest level to the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, and the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, along with them two standing by talking in that same place in the basilica. It has been a “positive” meeting, commented Macron’s environment, reports Reuters. Both European leaders surround Zelenski in diplomatic contacts in which Washington is more aligned with Moscow, according to the two proposals raised in the negotiations and that have transcended these days.
That in the midst of hundreds of world leaders who will barely be in Italian lands for a few hours, the appointment between Zelenski and Trump gives an idea of the importance of both governments to. This is the most serious attempt to bilateral approach after the clash of two months ago in Washington.
The arrival of Zelenski to the Plaza de San Pedro after the meeting with Trump has been greeted with applause in the midst of a wide protocol deployment.
Throughout the day Zelenski has seen himself again, already outside the Vatican, with Macron and Starmer. It also plans to complete an intense day with the head of the Italian government, Giorgia Meloni, and with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
The Ukrainian president had launched on Friday about his presence at the funeral appealing to his work agenda. But the severity of the moment was imposed. The positions of each other still reflect some huge differences in the middle of a war from which the end is not attached. This Friday they had
This Saturday’s meeting occurs at a time when tensions between both leaders are maintained for the terms in which they pose the road map to move towards the end of the contest released in 2022 with the great Russian invasion of Ukraine. Trump insists, according to the plan that manages his administration, that kyiv must legally recognize the Crimea Peninsula, occupied since 2014, as Russian territory, something that Zelenski underlines that it is unconstitutional.
In his message in networks during his return to the United States, Trump made it clear that neither the meeting with Zelenski, nor the words of NATO’s allies, nor the Vatican spirit had made him change his mind about it. In reference to newspaper articles The New York Times In which it is indicated that Ukraine must recover territory, the president declares that the idea that Crimea can return to kyiv control and other demands are “ridiculous.”
Faced with the Washington proposal, which European countries have gone to light, including France and Great Britain, together with the kyiv government, which does not plan to grant any ownership to Moscow of Ukrainian territory. Zelenski believes that Trump’s plan is crush on the Kremlin thesis and is not acceptable.
The cusp of the differences was achieved on February 28. That day, the world witnessed with light and stenographers of the, to which Trump and his vice president, JD Vance, wanted to become guilty of the contest, ignoring that the aggressor country is Russia. Zelenski, under a spiral of reproaches in an unheard of public in the spheres of the high policy, was even humiliated and rebuked for not dressing suit and tie. Minutes later, the visit to the United States was terminated in advance and bilateral relations remain far from being able to be considered friendly. Only the improvised summit with hundreds of world leaders around the Basilica of San Pedro del Vaticano has managed to gather both again, but the differences between one and the other on how to put an end to the contest are huge.
While Francisco is already buried around his funeral, the possibility of an entente for peace continues to be woven, the war maintains its course on the ground. From Moscow, the Army Chief announced this Saturday that they have finished expelling the Ukrainian troops that occupied part of the southern Kursk region since last summer. The Ukrainian General Staff, in what appears to be a new battle for the story and the propaganda between both contestants, has responded that it still maintains certain operations in the area, although they do not hide that the situation of that deployment is complicated.
