May 18 (UPI) — Against the backdrop of Pope Leo XIV’s first papal mass Sunday, Vice President JD Vance met privately with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about achieving a stand down in the war that has waged since Russia’s 2023 invasion of Ukraine.
It’s the first face to face meeting between the two leaders since the infamous February meeting in the Oval Office that erupted into verbal attacks, finger pointing and taunts by President Donald Trump.
The meeting between Vance and Zelenksy was overshadowed by Moscow’s large scale drone attack on Ukraine just hours prior. There are also reports that Russia may be planning a nuclear attack as it ramps up efforts to intimidate Kyiv and its allies.
Zelensky called the meeting “good,” and posted photos of smiling Ukrainian and U.S. officials gathered around an outside table.
“I reaffirmed that Ukraine is ready to be engaged in real diplomacy and underscored the importance of a full and unconditional ceasefire as soon as possible,” Zelensky said.
Trump is scheduled to talk with Zelensky Monday, and Trump has also said he plans to have a similar conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Leaders of Britain, Germany, France and Poland planned to speak with Trump before the U.S. president’s Monday phone call with Putin, German chancellor Friedrich Merz told reporters in Rome on Sunday.
“I spoke with Marco Rubio, including about the call tomorrow,” Merz said, referring to the U.S. Secretary of State. “We agreed that we will speak again with the four state leaders and the US president in preparation for this conversation.”
The latest efforts at achieving a ceasefire come as the first direct talks between Kyiv and Moscow failed to make any headway in ending the war, which started with Russia’s full scale invasion of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol in February, 2022.
