Fifteen minutes. No aides. No flags, no formalities – just two men locked in a contest over Ukraine’s future, in the most unlikely of arenas.

Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, bitter adversaries since their Oval Office blow-up in February, sat down in the heart of the Vatican for a tense, private exchange that could reshape the endgame of Europe’s bloodiest war in decades.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, right, and US President Donald Trump talk before the funeral.Credit: AP

Alongside the coffin of Pope Francis lying in state, the meeting was startling not just for its setting, but for its timing. Photos from Saint Peter’s Basilica captured the tension – Trump gesturing, Zelensky leaning forward, a few short minutes packed with decisions that could echo for decades.

Trump, emboldened by back-channel negotiations, believes Ukraine and Russia are close to a deal. His vision is blunt: a ceasefire that freezes Russian gains and redraws Europe’s borders. Zelensky, still defiant, sees any concession as a betrayal of the blood already spilled.

For Kyiv, it’s a political and constitutional impossibility. For Trump, it’s the “deal to end all deals”. Around them, world leaders mourned a pope, but in the quiet corners of St........

© The Sydney Morning Herald