{"id":1009,"date":"2025-04-26T11:58:58","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T11:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/?p=1009"},"modified":"2025-04-28T11:26:35","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T11:26:35","slug":"white-house-says-trump-zelensky-had-productive-meeting-ahead-of-francis-funeral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/26\/white-house-says-trump-zelensky-had-productive-meeting-ahead-of-francis-funeral\/","title":{"rendered":"White House says Trump, Zelensky had \u2018productive\u2019 meeting ahead of Francis funeral"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, both in Rome<\/a> for Pope Francis’s funeral, held a “productive” meeting early Saturday as the U.S. looks to broker<\/a> a peace deal between<\/a> Russia and Ukraine.<\/p>\n

“President Trump and President Zelenskyy met privately today and had a very productive discussion,” White House communications director Steven Cheung shared Saturday. “More details about the meeting will follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zelensky posted an image of the two leaders sitting across from one another, staring eye to eye inside St. Peter\u2019s Basilica \u2014 where Francis\u2019s funeral procession was held later Saturday morning\u2014 and he thanked Trump for the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood meeting. We discussed a lot one on one. Hoping for results on everything we covered. Protecting lives of our people. Full and unconditional ceasefire. Reliable and lasting peace that will prevent another war from breaking out,\u201d the Ukrainian president said. \u201cVery symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian delegation<\/a> and White House have also\u00a0posted images<\/a>\u00a0of Trump and Zelensky together.<\/p>\n

French President Emmanuel Macron briefly spoke with Trump and Zelensky before the two sat down for their face-to-face, according to\u00a0a video<\/a>\u00a0shared by White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino. Other images\u00a0on social platform X<\/a>\u00a0show British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was with Macron, Trump and Zelensky for a brief greeting.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Trump-Zelensky\u00a0meeting \u2014 which lasted roughly 15 minutes, per Ukrainian officials \u2014 comes in stark contrast to their\u00a0last face-to-face interaction<\/a>, when Zelensky\u00a0abruptly departed<\/a>\u00a0a White House meeting after a\u00a0fiery spat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other foreign leaders,\u00a0including Macron and Starmer, have also lobbied for a truce in the over three-year-long war, while continuing to offer funds in support of Ukraine\u2019s fight for sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Trump earlier this week slammed Ukraine for dragging its feet<\/a> on signing a proposed minerals deal<\/a> that would bolster security for Kyiv amid its war with Russia and grant the U.S. access to Ukraine\u2019s rare earth assets.<\/p>\n

\u201cUkraine, headed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has not signed the final papers on the very important Rare Earths Deal with the United States. It is at least three weeks late,” Trump posted to Truth Social<\/a> on Friday. “Hopefully, it will be signed IMMEDIATELY. Work on the overall Peace Deal between Russia and Ukraine is going smoothly. SUCCESS seems to be in the future!\u201d <\/p>\n

A memorandum of understanding was signed between the two parties<\/a> but with hesitation from Zelensky who said security guarantees must be in place as negotiations with Russia continue to develop.<\/p>\n

The president has also suggested that Zelensky may be required to surrender Crimea<\/a>, a territory annexed by Russia in 2014, to end the deadly conflict in the region. The Ukrainian leader pushed back on the notion, drawing fire from the White House.<\/p>\n

Following the rebuke from the Trump administration, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a massive attack on Kyiv. Drone strikes hit the Ukrainian capital early Thursday, killing at least eight people and injuring dozens of others.<\/p>\n

Trump lashed out at Putin for the move.<\/p>\n

“I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV,\u201d Trump wrote Thursday<\/a>, following the strikes. \u201cNot necessary, and very bad timing.”<\/p>\n

He added, “Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!\u201d<\/p>\n

Updated at 8:15 a.m. EDT.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, both in Rome for Pope Francis’s funeral, held a “productive” meeting early Saturday as the U.S. looks to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. “President Trump and President Zelenskyy met privately today and had a very productive discussion,” White House communications director Steven Cheung shared Saturday. “More details about the meeting will follow.\u201d Zelensky posted an image of the two leaders…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1010,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions\/1010"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}