The office of Zelensky shared a picture of Trump and Zelensky engaged in conversation at St. Peter’s Basilica.

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.

Ukraine war, Moscow has claimed its forces have retaken the Kursk region, but Kyiv has denied any such gains. Meanwhile, a top Russian military official has admitted for the first time to deploying North Koreans into Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed on Saturday what he called the complete failure of an offensive by Ukrainian forces into Russia's Kursk region after they were expelled from the last village Moscow said they had been holding.

Russia has regained control of Kursk, the border region where Ukraine launched a surprise offensive last year, President Vladimir Putin said Saturday.