US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky had a “very productive” meeting on Saturday in Rome, a White House official said, as both leaders attended the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.

Zelensky said his meeting with Trump could prove historic if a peaceful end to Ukraine’s war with Russia that they discussed is achieved.

“Good meeting. One-on-one, we managed to discuss a lot. We hope for a result from all the things that were spoken about,” Zelensky wrote in a post on social media platform Telegram.

He said those topics included “the protection of the lives of our people. A complete and unconditional ceasefire. A reliable and lasting peace that will prevent a recurrence of war.”

Zelensky added: “It was a very symbolic meeting that has the potential to become historic if we achieve joint results. Thank you, President Donald Trump!”

A spokesman for Zelensky’s office said the two leaders, in an encounter in St Peter’s Basilica that lasted about 15 minutes, had agreed to have a second meeting later on Saturday, and that their teams were working on arrangements for that.

The meeting at the Vatican, their first since an angry encounter in the Oval Office in Washington in February, comes at a critical time in negotiations aimed at bringing an end to fighting between Ukraine and Russia.

“President Trump and President Zelensky met privately today and had a very productive discussion. More details about the meeting will follow,” said Steven Cheung, White House communications director.

Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, described the meeting as “constructive” in a post on social media.

Zelensky’s office released photographs of the Rome meeting. In one, the Ukrainian and US leaders sat opposite each other in a large marble-lined hall, around two feet apart, and were leaning in towards each other in conversation. No aides could be seen in the image.

In a second photograph, from the same location, Zelensky, Trump, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were shown standing in a tight huddle. Macron had his hand on Zelenskiy’s shoulder.

Trump, who has been pressing both sides to agree to a ceasefire, said on Friday that there had been productive talks between his envoy and the Russian leadership, and called for a high-level meeting between Kyiv and Moscow to close a deal.

Trump had previously warned his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.

Differences over territory

After a round of shuttle diplomacy this week, differences have emerged between the position of the White House on peace talks and the stance of Ukraine and its European allies, according to documents from the talks obtained by Reuters.

Washington is proposing a legal recognition that Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014, is Russian territory, something that Kyiv and its allies in Europe say is a red line they will not cross.

There are also differences on how quickly sanctions on Russia would be lifted if a peace deal is signed, what kind of security guarantees Ukraine would have, and how Ukraine would be financially compensated.

Trump and Zelensky have had a rocky personal relationship. At their Oval Office meeting, Trump accused the Ukrainian leader of “gambling with World War Three”.

Since then, Kyiv has tried to repair relations, but the barbs have continued. Zelensky has said Trump was trapped in a “disinformation bubble” that favoured Moscow, while the US leader accused Zelensky of foot-dragging on a peace deal and making “inflammatory” statements.

But the two men need each other. Trump requires Zelensky’s buy-in to achieve his stated ambition of bringing a swift peace between Russia and Ukraine, while Kyiv needs Trump to pressure Moscow into diluting some of the more onerous conditions it has set for a truce.

At the Oval Office meeting in February, a reporter from a conservative US news network accused Zelensky of disrespecting the occasion by not wearing a suit.

Zelensky, since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, has eschewed suits in favour of military-style attire, saying it is his way of showing solidarity with his countrymen fighting to defend Ukraine.

In Rome on Saturday, Zelensky again decided against a suit, and instead wore a dark shirt, buttoned up to the neck with no tie, and wore a dark military-style jacket over the top of that.