The two leaders sat in a large, mostly empty room at the Vatican, their armchairs pulled in close as they leaned toward each other and spoke intently.
In a Truth Social post after their meeting, Trump described the Ukraine conflict as a “mess that was left to me by Obama and Biden, and what a mess it is.”
“There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along,” Trump wrote, hinting economic sanctions could follow.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for his part, warned earlier this month that the White House was prepared to “move on” and walk away from talks if Ukraine and Russia did not make significant progress toward ending the conflict.
Zelenskyy has rejected some of the possible concessions, including Trump’s statement in Time magazine that “Crimea will stay with Russia,” referring to the strategic peninsula that Putin illegally annexed in 2014.
Trump’s efforts on Ukraine come as he rapidly remakes the international order on other key fronts. He has launched a sweeping trade war with China, gutted U.S. aid to the developing world and repeatedly mused about acquiring both Greenland and Canada.
He has so far failed to permanently stop another conflict raging in the Middle East. After he helped broker a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, that fragile peace fell apart and fighting has resumed.
In an interview with The Atlantic published Monday, Trump said: “I’m trying to save a lot of lives in the world. You know, Ukraine and Russia — it’s not our lives, but it could end up in a Third World War.”
The president, who has long admired what he views as Putin’s strength and advocated for closer ties between the U.S. and Russia, went into his second presidency seeking to shift decades of U.S. foreign policy and bipartisan hawkishness on Russia. Republicans are increasingly behind Trump, as the MAGA political coalition sours on interventionism and views U.S. support for Kyiv as a waste of taxpayer dollars.
Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, framed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in stark moral terms and attempted to rally the U.S. behind Kyiv. Trump’s approach has been far more transactional, with a focus on payback for American support in the form of a proposed deal giving U.S. access to Ukraine’s rare-earth minerals.
Trump has adopted some of Putin’s falsehoods about the war, including the idea that Ukraine started the conflict. In their tense Oval Office meeting, Trump and Vice President JD Vance castigated Zelenskyy in front of television cameras, thrilling American populists who favor a sharp turn away from internationalism.
Yet as the conflict rages on, Trump has also increasingly publicly chastised Putin. He posted on Truth Social last week that he was “not happy” with Russia’s strikes on Kyiv and made a direct appeal to Putin: “Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!”
The two sides are at an impasse on other crucial issues. Zelenskyy has sought entrance into NATO, which would bring Ukraine into a mutual defense pact with other Western powers. Russia staunchly opposes that bid, characterizing it as a provocation from a nation it barely considers legitimate. Trump has so far been largely unsupportive of Ukraine joining NATO.
In the same Time magazine interview, Trump appeared to chafe at the idea that he was running behind schedule on securing peace in Eastern Europe, saying in part: “The war has been raging for three years. I just got here, and you say, ‘What’s taken so long?’” He made similar remarks about the war between Israel and Hamas.
In a statement to The Associated Press, White House National Security Council spokesperson James Hewitt said Trump is still committed to getting a Russia-Ukraine deal completed and is “closer to that objective than at any point during Joe Biden’s presidency.”
“Within 100 days, President Trump has gotten both Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table with the aim to bring this horrific war to a peaceful resolution,” Hewitt said. “It is no longer a question of if this war will end but when.”
On Monday, Putin announced a brief ceasefire, starting at midnight local time May 8 and ending at midnight May 11, to coincide with Russia’s celebration of its triumph over the Nazis in World War II. (Putin has likened Ukraine’s government to Nazi Germany.)
Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Andrii Sybiha responded to the announcement by calling on Russia to “cease fire immediately” if it “truly wants peace.”
“Why wait until May 8th?” Sybiha asked Monday in a post on X.
