2 weeks Ago By The Telegraph
Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived in Rome before a possible meeting with Donald Trump on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral . Officials suggested that the two leaders could meet for the first time since Mr Zelensky was asked to leave the White House following a row in the Oval Office . The two “could meet”, a Ukrainian official said on Saturday morning, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
On Friday, Mr Trump claimed that Russia and Ukraine were “very close to a deal” in efforts to broker a ceasefire between the two warring nations. Mr Zelensky and Mr Trump had been expected to sit near each other at Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday, until it was revealed that seating arrangements will be based on French alphabet order. As the largest gathering of global heads of state since the death of Queen Elizabeth II , the funeral will be a day of diplomatic intrigue at the Vatican, where dozens of world leaders and heads of state will attend, including Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, and the Prince of Wales .
On Tuesday, Mr Zelensky said that he was ready to see his US counterpart in Rome. “We are always ready to meet with our partners from the United States of America,” he said. Mr Trump, meanwhile, said that he had “a lot of meetings set up” but did not reveal with whom.
Their potential meeting comes at a pivotal point in the war in Ukraine. The US president has launched a push for peace since returning to office in January, claiming on Friday that a deal to end the conflict was “close” . Hours earlier, Steve Witkoff , the US special envoy, spent the day with Vladimir Putin – their third meeting in four months – for crunch talks over a potential deal.
The meeting in Moscow coincided with a car bomb , suspected to have been carried out by Ukraine, that killed a Russian general. It came two days after the deadliest missile strikes on Kyiv this year . Also attending Pope Francis’s funeral will be Emmanuel Macron, who is also a key figure in negotiations, having hosted talks between the US, Ukraine and Europe in Paris earlier this month.
It is possible that the French president will attend any impromptu meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky. In December, Mr Macron convened a trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Notre-Dame reopening ceremony . Despite Mr Trump saying that a deal was close, a potential meeting between the US president and his Ukrainian counterpart also comes at a time of intense friction between the two leaders.
Earlier this week, Mr Trump accused Mr Zelensky of “prolonging the killing field” by refusing to accept a proposal to accept Crimea, which was invaded in 2014, as Russian. Alongside Mr Trump will be the presidents of Argentina, Gabon, Germany, Italy, the Philippines, and Poland, together with the prime ministers of Britain and New Zealand, and many European royals. Israel, however, will not send a senior representative to the funeral following their delayed response to the death of the 88-year-old pontiff.
The country will instead send its ambassador to the Vatican amid tensions over Pope Francis’s stance on the war in Gaza . Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister, vowed to “honour” Pope Francis, but has opted against attending, making him the only leader of a major Western country to forgo the ceremony. Spain will instead be represented by King Felipe and Queen Letizia, as well as several high-ranking government officials.
Alberto Feijóo, the leader of the opposition in Spain, will also attend. Neither Putin or Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, are expected to attend. Doing so for the Russian president would be particularly difficult given the outstanding arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court over war crimes in Ukraine.
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