Zelenskyy meets with US and EU leaders in Rome ahead of Trump and Putin's phone call - media
Kyiv • UNN
In Rome, Zelenskyy met with representatives from the US and Europe. The cessation of the war in Ukraine was discussed ahead of Trump's talks with Putin and NATO leaders.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with senior U.S. officials and European leaders in Rome on Sunday, part of an intensified diplomatic effort ahead of a key phone call on Monday between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, UNN reports, citing AP.
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Zelenskyy spoke with U.S. Vice President J. D. Vance and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the U.S. Ambassador's residence, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he spoke with both Zelenskyy and Rubio on the sidelines of the new pope's inauguration.
Merz said he also agreed with the leaders of France and the United Kingdom "that we will speak to the American president again in preparation for that conversation."
"I have a strong impression that both Europeans and Americans are determined to work together, but now also purposefully, to ensure that this terrible war ends as soon as possible," Merz told reporters in Rome.
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Trump said he plans to speak by phone on Monday with Putin and then talk to Zelenskyy and leaders of various NATO countries about ending the war in Ukraine.
The publication notes that the intensified diplomacy came after Russia launched its largest drone attack against Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, after the first direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv in years failed to produce a ceasefire.
Putin rejected Zelenskyy's offer to meet face-to-face in Turkey after he himself proposed direct talks - albeit not at the presidential level - as an alternative to a 30-day ceasefire called for by Ukraine and its Western allies, including the United States.
Talks in Istanbul on Friday broke up in less than two hours without a ceasefire, although both sides agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war, according to the heads of both delegations. Ukrainian intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said on Ukrainian television on Saturday that the exchange could take place as early as next week.