US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held crunch war talks in the heart of the Vatican minutes before the start of the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday, as the White House mounts an increasingly urgent push to strike a peace deal in Ukraine.

Zelensky used the funeral of Pope Francis to launch a diplomatic blitz to head off a U.S. proposal to end Russia’s war on Ukraine on terms favorable to Moscow.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, while attending Pope Francis funeral at the Vatican, participated in a "very productive" meeting, the White House said Saturday. Their first head-to-head meeting since February lasted about 15 minutes and they agreed to continue talks,