A move to hold talks between Ukraine and Russia at the Vatican appeared to gain momentum 19 May, following a call between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said he believed his two-hour call with Putin “went very well.”
He said, “Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War.”
Trump said, “Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will begin immediately.” He added, “The Vatican, as represented by the pope, has stated that it would be very interested in hosting the negotiations.”
Trump said he had informed Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, President Emmanuel Macron of France, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy, Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany and President Alexander Stubb of Finland.
“Let the process begin!” said Trump in his post.
In a 19 May post on the X social media platform, Zelenskyy said he had spoken with Trump twice—first one-on-one, and again with von der Leyen, Macron, Meloni, Merz and Stubb— ahead of the call with Putin.
Zelenskyy—who had a private meeting with Pope Leo XIV following the 18 May papal inauguration Mass at St Peter’s Square—said in his conversations with Trump that he had “reiterated that Ukraine is ready for direct negotiations with Russia in any format that brings results. Türkiye, the Vatican, Switzerland—we are considering all possible venues.”
In a 19 May statement, Meloni said that “efforts are being made for an immediate start to negotiations between the parties that can lead as soon as possible to a ceasefire and create the conditions for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.
“In this regard, the willingness of the Holy Father to host the talks in the Vatican was welcomed. Italy is ready to do its part to facilitate contacts and work for peace,” Meloni said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that the Vatican could be a meeting venue for Russia-Ukraine peace talks before meeting 17 May with Cardinal Matteo Zuppi. As the archbishop of Bologna, Italy, Cardinal Zuppi has served as a papal peace envoy between Ukraine and Russia since 2023.
“I think it’s a place that both sides would be comfortable going,” Rubio told reporters at the US Embassy in Rome.
Though only days into his papacy, Pope Leo has given war-weary Ukrainians reason to hope that Russia’s armed aggression against their nation—now in its 11th year—can be ended through a just peace. Russia seized Crimea and backed separatist forces in Ukraine’s Donbas region in 2014, prior to launching its full scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Pope Leo has frequently referenced Ukraine in his calls for peace, and had a private meeting with Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, father and head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, who like Zelenskyy invited the pope to make an apostolic visit to Ukraine.
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