Rome (AFP) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with US Vice President JD Vance on Sunday, for the first time since their heated White House debate in February, as Russia launched a “record” drone barrage on Kyiv.

The meeting came two days after the first direct talks between Ukraine and Russia in over three years. They were held in Turkey, where a prisoner exchange was agreed but no progress made on securing a ceasefire.

“We discussed the talks in Istanbul, where the Russians sent a low-level delegation with no decision-making powers,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram following the meeting with Vance at the US ambassador’s residence in Rome.

Both men had earlier attended Pope Leo’s inaugural mass at the Vatican.

“We also touched on the need for sanctions against Russia, bilateral trade, defence cooperation, the situation on the battlefield and the future exchange of prisoners,” Zelensky added.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Zelensky’s aide Andriy Yermak were also present.

In a short statement, the White House said “the leaders discussed their shared goal of ending the bloodshed in Ukraine and provided updates on the current state of negotiations for a ceasefire and lasting peace.”

A photo accompanying the statement showed Vance and Zelensky with broad smiles, a sharp contrast to their bitter February clash in the Oval Office.

Vance also held a meeting with the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Italy’s Prime Minister Georgia Meloni that the White House later described as “constructive.”

A senior Ukrainian official from the president’s office, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP that Zelensky and Vance discussed preparations for Monday’s telephone conversation between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on Saturday that he would speak by phone with Putin on Monday in order to stop the “BLOODBATH” in Ukraine.

The leaders of Britain, Germany and France also want to talk to Trump ahead of that call with Putin, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said.

The US president has increased pressure on Ukraine and so far abstained from criticising Putin, who started the biggest conflict in Europe since World War Two.

- ‘Better’ talks -

The official said that the Rome encounter went “better” than the Oval Office row three months ago.

Then, Vance publically accused Zelensky of being “disrespectful” towards Trump, who told the Ukrainian leader he should be more grateful and that he had no “cards” to play in negotiations with Russia.

Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska were earlier granted an audience with Leo following his inauguration.

“We thank the Vatican for its willingness to become a platform for direct negotiations between Ukraine and Russia,” Ukraine’s leader said after meeting the pontiff.

“The martyred Ukraine is waiting for negotiations for a just and lasting peace to finally happen,” Leo XIV said during his inauguration.

- ‘Record’ drone barrage -

Ukraine on Sunday said that Russia had launched a record number of drones at the country overnight, targeting various regions, including the capital Kyiv, where a woman was killed.

Another man was killed in the southeastern Kherson region, where a railway station and private houses and cars were hit.

The Ukrainian air force said that Russia had launched “273 Shahed attack drones and various types of imitator drones”, of which 88 were destroyed and 128 more went astray “without negative consequences”.

Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said it was a “record” number of drones. “Russia has a clear goal – to continue killing civilians,” she said.

The Russian military said it had intercepted 25 Ukrainian drones overnight and on Sunday morning. Moscow also claimed it had captured Bahatyr, another village in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, as it intensifies the war effort despite the Istanbul peace talks.

- ‘Root causes’ -

In an interview with Russian state TV published on Sunday, Putin said that Moscow’s aim was to “eliminate the causes that triggered this crisis, create the conditions for a lasting peace and guarantee Russia’s security”, without elaborating further.

Russia’s references to the “root causes” of the conflict typically refer to alleged grievances with Kyiv and the West that Moscow has put forward as justification for launching the invasion in February 2022.

They include pledges to “de-Nazify” and demilitarise Ukraine, protect Russian speakers in the country’s east, push back against NATO expansion and stop Ukraine’s westward geopolitical drift.

Kyiv and the West say that Russia’s invasion is nothing more than an imperial-style land grab.

Tens of thousands have been killed since Russia started the war, with millions forced to flee their homes.

Friday’s talks in Turkey led to an agreement to exchange 1,000 prisoners each.