Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky meets JD Vance at Vatican ahead of crucial Trump call with Putin

Volodymyr Zelensky said he met Pope Leo following the new pontiff’s inaugural Mass at the Vatican, adding that Kyiv was ready for talks in any format to get real results in ending the war with Russia.

The Ukrainian president said on Telegram that he was grateful to the Vatican for its readiness to host direct talks between Ukraine and Russia and “for its clear voice to defend just and lasting peace”.

The pair smiled as they shook hands in the brief exchange. Mr Zelensky later met with Mr Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the mass, a source in the Ukrainian delegation told Reuters.

Both Mr Vance and Mr Rubio are Catholics, though the former clashed with the late Pope Francis over the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies.

Russia wants western sanctions lifted but is sceptical that they will be lifted soon.

Even if the U.S. lifted sanctions, EU and other Western sanctions – such as those imposed by Australia, Britain, Canada and Japan – could remain for years to come.

Ukraine wants the sanctions to remain in place.

Reuters has reported that the U.S. government is studying ways it could ease sanctions on Russia’s energy sector as part of a broad plan to enable Washington to deliver swift relief if Moscow agrees to end the Ukraine war.

Moscow controls about a fifth of Ukraine and says the territory is now formally part of Russia, a position most countries do not accept.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. Russian forces control almost all of Luhansk, and more than 70% of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, according to Russian estimates. Russia also controls a sliver of Kharkiv region.

In Putin’s most detailed public proposals for peace, outlined in June 2024, he said Ukraine would have to withdraw from the entirety of those regions – so even from areas not currently under Russian control. His negotiators restated those demands in the May 16 Istanbul talks, the Ukrainian source said.

According to Alexander Kots, a war correspondent for Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, the negotiators also told their Ukrainian counterparts that Kyiv would need to drop all claims to the four regions and Crimea.

Under a draft peace plan crafted by the Trump administration, the U.S. would de jure recognise Russian control of Crimea, and de facto recognise Russian control of Luhansk and parts of Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Kherson.

Kyiv’s military intelligence agency said Russia was planning to conduct a “training and combat” launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile late on Sunday to intimidate Ukraine and the West.

The GUR agency said in a statement on the Telegram app that the launch was ordered to be implemented from Russia’s Sverdlovsk region, adding that the flight range for the missile was more than 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles).

Russia has repeatedly said that possible NATO membership for Kyiv was a cause of the war, is unacceptable and that Ukraine must be neutral – with no foreign bases. Zelenskiy has said it is not for Moscow to decide Ukraine’s alliances.

At the 2008 Bucharest summit, NATO leaders agreed that Ukraine and Georgia would one day become members. Ukraine in 2019 amended its constitution, committing to the path of full membership of NATO and the European Union.

U.S. envoy General Keith Kellogg has said NATO membership for Ukraine is “off the table”. Trump has said past U.S. support for Ukraine’s membership of NATO was a cause of the war.

In 2022, Ukraine and Russia discussed permanent neutrality. Russia wanted limits on the Ukrainian military, according to a copy of a potential agreement reviewed by Reuters. Ukraine staunchly opposes the idea of curbs to the size and capabilities of its armed forces.

Russia has said it has no objections to Ukraine seeking EU membership, though some members of the bloc could oppose Kyiv’s bid.

Donald Trump has said he will be speaking to the presidents of Russia and Ukraine on Monday about stopping the ‘bloodbath’ in Ukraine.

What are the challenges the U.S. president faces in his drive for a peace deal?

Ukraine, which was subject to a full-scale invasion in 2022 and saw Russia annex Crimea in 2014, says it needs security guarantees from the major powers – primarily the United States.

The problem, say sources involved in the discussions, is that any security guarantee that has teeth would lock the West into a potential future war with Russia – and any security deal without teeth would leave Ukraine exposed.

Under draft proposals for a possible peace settlement seen by Reuters, diplomats spoke of a “robust security guarantee”, including possibly an Article 5-like agreement.

Article 5 of the NATO treaty commits allies to defend each other in the event of an attack, though Ukraine is not a member of the alliance.

A failed 2022 deal proposed permanent neutrality for Ukraine in return for security guarantees from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, and other nations including Belarus, Canada, Germany, Israel, Poland and Turkey, according to a draft seen by Reuters.

Officials in Kyiv say agreeing to Ukrainian neutrality is a red line they will not cross.

Former veterans minister Johnny Mercer has said the spirit of ex-soldiers in Ukraine was ‘remarkable’ after he paid a visit to Kyiv to support fellow veterans.

Mr Mercer was on a visit to help the veterans ministry and charities set up a platform to offer work and health services to the country’s war veterans.

While there are currently 1.2 million veterans in Ukraine, after the war it’s believed there will be up to six million.

Reporter Alex Ross spoke to Mr Mercer about his trip – and how a drone landed near his hotel during his stay – you can read more here.

Pope Leo will have a private meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy later on Sunday following the pope’s inaugural Mass, the Vatican said.

Leo spoke with Zelenskiy on Monday in the first known conversation between the newly-elected pontiff and a foreign leader, underscoring his concern for the war in Ukraine.

Speaking moments after Sunday’s Mass, Leo mentioned the “martyred” Ukraine and called for a “just and lasting peace”.