Zelenskyy touted the U.S.–Ukraine minerals deal as a key outcome of the meeting, urging Ukrainian lawmakers to ratify it quickly.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that his meeting with President Donald Trump at the Vatican a week ago was the “most substantive” the two have ever held.
Speaking to reporters in Kyiv on May 2, Zelenskyy said the encounter with Trump, which took place on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral on April 26, marked a shift in tone and substance between the two leaders.
“I believe our conversation with President Trump was the best we’ve had so far. It may have been the shortest, but it was the most substantive. With all due respect to our teams, I think the one-on-one format worked best,” Zelenskyy said, Ukrainian news agency Interfax-Ukraine
reports.
Zelenskyy added that the meeting, held in a private one-on-one format inside St. Peter’s Basilica, cut through diplomatic formalities by creating the “right atmosphere for a real dialogue.”
In a video address to the nation on May 1, a day after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko
signed the much-anticipated U.S.–Ukraine minerals deal, Zelenskyy also had words of praise for the meeting with Trump, describing it as “meaningful.”
“We look forward to other outcomes from that conversation–it was a meaningful meeting, and President Trump and I used every minute to the fullest,” he
said. “I thank him for that. And once again, I thank both our teams–the Ukrainian and the American. The work on the agreement was truly professional, and although the negotiations were at times challenging, the result is a strong one.”
U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators had continued to revisit the terms of the proposed minerals deal in the weeks following Zelenskyy’s White House
visit on Feb. 28, with signs of tension emerging in the final stretch.
Zelenskyy said the newly signed minerals deal, which grants U.S. firms preferential access to Ukraine’s rare earth and strategic mineral deposits, was the first concrete outcome of the Vatican meeting—and a sign of what could follow.
“In fact, this is the first tangible outcome of that Vatican meeting, making it truly historic,” he said.
Under the terms of the deal, a joint supervisory board—split evenly between Ukrainian and American representatives—will oversee a new investment fund designed to support postwar reconstruction, industrial development, and defense infrastructure.
Zelenskyy urged Ukrainian lawmakers in the Verkhovna Rada to swiftly ratify the agreement, whose structure reflects “truly an equal partnership” that will generate economic returns for both countries while reinforcing Ukraine’s sovereignty.
The Ukrainian leader’s comments come as the United States has signaled a shift in its role as chief mediator in the Ukraine–Russia conflict. U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters at a May 1
briefing that while the United States supports peace efforts, it will no longer lead shuttle diplomacy—and that it’s time for Kyiv and Moscow to engage directly.
“The methodology of how we contribute to this will change in that we will not be the mediators,” she said. “We certainly are still committed to it and will help and do what we can. But we are not going to fly around the world at the drop of a hat to mediate meetings, that it is now between the two parties.”
“Now is the time that they need to present and develop concrete ideas about how this conflict is going to end,” she added. “It’s going to be up to them.”
Bruce’s remarks came a day after Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov
said that the Ukraine–Russia conflict is too complex for a quick solution, signaling that the process could drag out.
Trump, during his 2024 presidential campaign, made settling the long-running war a focal point, promising to broker a peace deal quickly. Last week, Trump
said Russia and Ukraine were “very close to a deal,” noting that most of the major points had been agreed to.
“They are very close to a deal, and the two sides should now meet, at very high levels, to ‘finish it off,’” Trump said in a Truth Social
post after arriving in Rome for Pope Francis’s funeral—and his meeting with Zelenskyy.
Trump has signaled that Kyiv will likely need to make territorial concessions as part of a peace deal, something Zelenskyy has resisted.
