Kyiv, 26 April (H.S.): Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump held a 15-minute meeting inside St Peter's Basilica ahead of Pope Francis' funeral. The White House labeled the meeting as very productive, while Zelensky called it very symbolic with the potential to become historic. They were seen engaged in deep discussion right before the funeral began. This meeting followed Trump's remarks about Russia and Ukraine being very close to a deal, after talks between his envoy and President Putin.

Zelensky expressed hope for meaningful outcomes from their discussions.Posting on social media, Zelensky said they'd had a good meeting. We discussed a lot one on one, adding that he hoped for results on everything they had said.

He said it was a very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results.

It was the first meeting since Trump and Zelenskyy had a fiery clash in the Oval Office in February about how to reach a peace settlement with Russia over their war.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar