News Flash
ROME, May 18, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met
with US Vice President JD Vance on Sunday, for the first time since the heated
debate in the White House in February, as Russia launched a "record" drone
barrage on Kyiv.
The meeting came two days after the first direct talks between Ukraine and
Russia in over three years in Turkey, where a prisoner exchange was agreed but
no progress made on securing a ceasefire.
"We discussed the talks in Istanbul, where the Russians sent a low-level
delegation with no decision-making powers," Zelensky wrote on Telegram
following the meeting with Vance at the US ambassador's residence in Rome after
the two of them attended Pope Leo's inaugural mass in the Vatican.
"We also touched on the need for sanctions against Russia, bilateral trade,
defence cooperation, the situation on the battlefield and the future exchange
of prisoners," Zelensky added.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Zelensky's aide Andriy Yermak were
also present at the meeting, where the two sides discussed steps towards a just
and lasting peace in Ukraine.
Vance also held a meeting with the European Commission President Ursula von
der Leyen and Italy's Prime Minister Georgia Meloni.
A senior Ukrainian official from the president's office, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, told AFP that Zelensky and Vance also discussed
preparations for Monday's telephone conversation between US President Donald
Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on Saturday that he
would speak by phone with Putin on Monday in order to stop the "BLOODBATH" in
Ukraine.
The leaders of Britain, Germany and France also want to talk to Trump ahead
of that call with Putin, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said.
The US president has increased pressure on Ukraine and so far abstained
from critisising Putin, who started the biggest conflict in Europe since World
War Two.
- 'Better' talks -
The official said that the Rome encounter went "better" than the Oval
Office row three months ago, when Vance publically accused Zelensky of being
"disrespectful" towards Trump, who told the Ukrainian leader he should be more
"thankful" and that he had no "cards" to play in negotiations with Russia
Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska were earlier granted an audience with
Leo following his inauguration.
"We thank the Vatican for its willingness to become a platform for direct
negotiations between Ukraine and Russia," Ukraine's leader said after meeting
the pontiff.
"The martyred Ukraine is waiting for negotiations for a just and lasting
peace to finally happen," Leo XIV said during his inauguration.
- 'Record' drone barrage -
Ukraine on Sunday said that Russia had launched a record number of drones
at the country overnight, targeting various regions, including that of the
capital Kyiv, where a woman was killed.
Another man was killed in the southeastern Kherson region, where a railway
station and private houses and cars were hit.
The Ukrainian air force said that Russia had launched "273 Shahed attack
drones and various types of imitator drones", of which 88 were destroyed and
128 more went astray "without negative consequences".
Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said it was a "record" number of
drones. "Russia has a clear goal -- to continue killing civilians," she said.
The Russian military said it had intercepted 25 Ukrainian drones overnight
and on Sunday morning. Moscow also claimed it had captured Bahatyr, another
village in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, as it intensifies the war effort
despite the Istanbul peace talks.
- 'Root causes' -
In an interview with Russian state TV published on Sunday, Putin said that
Moscow's aim was to "eliminate the causes that triggered this crisis, create
the conditions for a lasting peace and guarantee Russia's security", without
elaborating further.
Russia's references to the "root causes" of the conflict typically refer to
alleged grievances with Kyiv and the West that Moscow has put forward as
justification for launching the invasion in February 2022.
They include pledges to "de-Nazify" and demilitarise Ukraine, protect
Russian speakers in the country's east, push back against NATO expansion and
stop Ukraine's westward geopolitical drift.
Kyiv and the West say that Russia's invasion is nothing more than an
imperial-style land grab.
Tens of thousands have been killed since Russia started the war, with
millions forced to flee their homes.
Friday's talks in Turkey led to an agreement to exchange 1,000 prisoners
each.
