Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy have sat down for a face-to-face talk in the opulent halls of a Vatican basilica to discuss a possible ceasefire, after which the US president accused his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, of not wanting to “stop the war”.

The White House described Trump’s meeting with the Ukrainian leader before Pope Francis’s funeral as “very productive”, while Zelenskyy said on X that the talk with the US president was symbolic and had the “potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results”.

It was the first time that Zelenskyy and Trump had met face to face after a frosty February encounter in the White House where Trump and the US vice-president, JD Vance, berated the Ukrainian leader and accused him of ingratitude for US aid.

  • @BrinkBreaker@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1216 hours ago

    I wonder [not to give him any credit] if DJT would be a better president if he were surrounded by actual decent people that were earnest/honest. It feels like it could be in the realm of possibility that he’s treating the Ukraine/Russia conflict the way he has simply because the people around him are only giving him a specific narrative surrounding it. Either intentionally, incidentally, due to incompetence or sycophantic attempts to “please” trump.

    Maybe this is the first time getting it from Ukraine’s point of view, unfiltered.

    Doesn’t change/nor justify his shitty behavior, but… it makes a kind of sense.

    • @JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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      16 hours ago

      It wouldn’t surprise me. We are a product of our environment, and Trump is a very clear example of that. He tends to mimic and amplify whoever he thinks is the strongest/most powerful around him. He’s a LeFou in constant search of a Gaston.