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Kyiv is interested in a direct face-to-face meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in Brussels on Tuesday, confirming that the Vatican proposed to host the talks.
“I can confirm to you that proposals to organise possible contacts, including at the level of leaders, were made by the Vatican”, he said to Euronews’ question, adding that Ukraine is ready to “consider potential venues for such a meeting.”
The Ukrainian president also discussed a possible meeting with his US counterpart Donald Trump, Sybiha said.
After the phone calls with Putin and Zelenskyy on Monday, Trump said he believed the conversation with the Russian president “went very well” and that “Russia wants to do large-scale trade with the United States when this catastrophic ‘bloodbath’ is over.”
“The Vatican, as represented by the pope, has stated that it would be very interested in hosting the negotiations. Let the process begin,” Trump added.
Ukraine’s foreign minister said there was a “wonderful, extremely warm and meaningful meeting between President Zelenskyy and Pope Leo XIV” at the Holy See on Sunday, during the supreme pontiff’s inauguration celebrations.
Zelenskyy was the first leader to meet the supreme pontiff after his inauguration, Sybiha added.