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.

The United States has been pushing Ukraine to accept a peace plan that seems in part a gift to Moscow. But the short meeting of the leaders, and subsequent comments, appeared to be a change in tone.

Donald Trump has expressed doubts over whether Vladimir Putin is ‘tapping me along’ over peace talks after his meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky at the Vatican. A photo released during the funeral of Pope Francis today showed the US and Ukraine presidents chatting on the sidelines after paying their respects inside St Peter’s Basilica.