President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Pope Leo XIV in Rome on Tuesday, as Ukraine said it was preparing to send updated proposals to the U.S. for ending the war with Russia.
Less than 24 hours after he reiterated that Ukraine would not cede land to Russia, Zelenskyy met with the pontiff before holding talks with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a day after he met with the leaders of Britain, France and Germany in London.
The Vatican’s St. Peter’s Basilica was the setting for an iconic photo of Zelenskyy sitting face-to-face with President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the funeral for Leo’s predecessor Pope Francis in April.
Some interpreted as a sign that relations between the two leaders were warming, two months after Zelenskyy’s disastrous visit to the White House which saw Trump and Vice President JD Vance chastise him and tell him he wasn’t grateful enough to the U.S.
But seven months on and peace still appears like a distant prospect after Zelenskyy made it clear on Monday that Ukraine would not cede any land to Russia.
“Are we considering giving up any territory? We have no legal right — under Ukrainian law, under our constitution, under international law — and honestly, we have no moral right, either,” Zelenskyy said in a WhatsApp conversation with journalists.
His Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin has said he wants Ukraine to cede control of the entirety of its eastern Donbas region, which is made up of the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, whether diplomatically or by force.
In defiance of international law, the Kremlin proclaimed the biggest annexation of territory in postwar Europe in September 2022, when Putin illegally declared the annexation of the Donbas — which his forces still do not control fully after almost four years of war — along with the regions Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
Zelenskyy said Kyiv will hand over its “position” to the U.S. by Tuesday evening.
Trump originally approved a 28-point peace plan to end the war that included Ukraine’s ceding its territory, among other demands seen as favoring Russia.
In an interview published Tuesday, Trump said there was “no question” that the Kremlin was in a better negotiating position. Moscow has the upper hand on the battlefield and was “much stronger” than Ukraine, Trump told Politico, adding that “at some point, size will win, generally.”
He added that he was not ready to walk away from the peace process but that the parties involved have to “play ball.”
But Zelenskyy said Monday that negotiations led by the United States had whittled the original 28 points to 20 and that while he believed in Trump’s commitment to ending the war, he did not trust Russia.
“The general mood of the Americans is to find a compromise” on the land issue, he said, but none has been found yet. “Of course, Russia insists that we give up territory. We, of course, do not want to give up anything — that is exactly what we are fighting for,” he added.
While he acknowledged that Trump wanted to end the war, he said his American counterpart had “his own vision,” although Ukrainians see “the details and nuances more deeply.”
The Kremlin said it has not yet been briefed on the most recent round of negotiations between American and Ukrainian officials in Florida over the weekend.
After his meeting in London with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Zelenskyy said he had not received a clear answer about what its allies, including the United States, would be prepared to do in the event of a new Russian aggression.
But a French official told NBC News Monday that the meetings between Europeans, Americans and Ukrainians should help strengthen convergence in the coming days.
In parallel, work will be deepened to provide Ukraine with robust security guarantees and prepare measures for Ukraine’s reconstruction, the French official said.
Abigail Williams contributed.
