President Donald Trump said Friday that Russia and Ukraine were “very close” to a peace deal, and called for top leadership of the countries to “finish it off.”

Trump made the comments on Truth Social as he landed in Rome to attend the funeral of Pope Francis. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow on Friday to speak with President Vladimir Putin and other top Russian officials and push for a peace deal.

“Just landed in Rome,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “A good day in talks and meetings with Russia and Ukraine. They are very close to a deal, and the two sides should now meet, at very high levels, to ‘finish it off.’ Most of the major points are agreed to. Stop the bloodshed, NOW. We will be wherever is necessary to help facilitate the END to this cruel and senseless war!”

That post came just hours after he called for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to sign a mineral deal with the United States, saying that he was “at least three weeks late.”

“Ukraine, headed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has not signed the final papers on the very important Rare Earths Deal with the United States,” he posted. “It is at least three weeks late. Hopefully, it will be signed IMMEDIATELY. Work on the overall Peace Deal between Russia and Ukraine is going smoothly. SUCCESS seems to be in the future!”

The deal over rare earth minerals was supposed to be signed months ago, but came to a standstill in February after Zelensky was asked to leave the White House following a contentious meeting with Trump and Vice President JD Vance. Last week, several Ukrainian officials signaled that the country was coming close to finalizing the agreement.

At the same time, Trump has pushed both Zelensky and Putin to stop the hostilities and come to the negotiating table. Witkoff’s arrival in Russia came after Ukraine was hit with a pair of deadly air strikes this week and Russian Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, a high-level military official, was killed in a car bombing in Balashikha.

Before Witkoff’s arrival, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told CBS News that his country “ready to reach a deal” on Ukraine.

“The President of the United States believes, and I think rightly so, that we are moving in the right direction,” he said. “The negotiations continue, and until the end of the negotiations, we cannot disclose what it is about.”

As he was leaving for Rome, Trump said that he thought negotiations with the two countries were “coming along,” but added that they were “very fragile” at the moment.

While en route to Rome, Trump declined to tell reporters on board Air Force One whether he would be meeting with Zelensky while at the funeral. Trump also said that he would soon be talking to Witkoff about how his meeting with Putin went and said he hadn’t heard about the car bomb assassination of Moskalik.

“He’ll be calling me,” Trump said, according to a transcript provided by the White House foreign pool service. “They just left the meeting. I haven’t been briefed yet. But, he had — I hear, a pretty good meeting.”

President Donald Trump has arrived in Rome, where he will attend Pope Francis’ funeral Saturday morning in Vatican City, marking the first foreign trip of his second term.

The funeral comes six days after Francis passed away, the day after Easter, dying at age 88 of a stroke and heart failure after a battle with pneumonia. Since then, tens of thousands of people have come to pay their respects to the late pope as he lay in state at St. Peter’s Basilica.

The president and First Lady Melania Trump arrived in Rome late Friday night. They will depart early Saturday afternoon after attending the funeral.

Previous Papal Funerals

Trump is only the second sitting president to attend a papal funeral. The first was George W. Bush, who attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005. President Joe Biden did not attend the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in 2023, despite meeting the former pope as vice president years earlier. Benedict died nine years after resigning as pope in 2013, an unusual move for a modern pope. He was succeeded by Francis.

Photos from that visit show three presidents, Bush, his father, President George H.W. Bush, and President Bill Clinton kneeling in the first pew behind Pope John Paul II’s body lying in state. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and First Lady Laura Bush kneel near them.

(TIM SLOAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Who Else Will Be There?

Trump met with Pope Francis at the Vatican during his first term in 2017.

Biden met Francis twice: first as vice president in 2016, and during his presidency in 2021. Biden and former first lady Jill Biden will also travel to the Vatican to attend Francis’ funeral.

(TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty Images)

(Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Neither former President Barack Obama nor former President George W. Bush will attend Pope Francis’ funeral. Obama hosted Francis at the White House in 2015, marking the first papal visit to the United States since Pope Benedict in 2008. Francis was only the third pope ever to visit the White House.

Other world leaders who will attend the pope’s funeral include Javier Milei, president of Francis’ birthplace, Argentina; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy; British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Prince William; French President Emmanuel Macron; and Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin.

As many as 200,000 people are expected to attend the funeral, the Italian government said.

How The Funeral Will Go

The funeral will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday morning local time, which is 4 a.m. Eastern time in the United States.

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re will preside over the funeral Mass and deliver the homily, the Vatican said. He is the dean of the College of Cardinals, which will form a conclave next month to install the next pope.

On Friday night, Francis’ coffin was set to be sealed in a ceremony and closed to the public.

On Saturday morning, the funeral will begin with a procession in St. Peter’s Basilica, where the coffin will then be brought and set down. The funeral Mass will follow.

The cardinals who attend will be recognizable by their purple liturgical garments, the Vatican said.

After Mass, the funeral procession will slowly make its way to the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, a little over two miles away, where Francis frequently went to pray before an icon of Mary. Francis is the first pope to be buried outside the Vatican in over a century. Many popes are buried in the underground crypt beneath St. Peter’s Basilica.

“The coffin will be welcomed by ‘the last ones,’ a group of poor and marginalized people who always had a special place in Pope Francis’ heart,” the Vatican said. “They will be the ones to give the final tribute before the coffin is carried to the altar of Saint Mary Major.”

The burial will be private and is expected to end around 2:00 p.m. local time or 8:00 a.m. Eastern time.

The last funeral for a sitting pope, John Paul II, was three hours long. Francis’ funeral looks like it will be even longer, around four hours.

The faithful may begin visiting Francis’ tomb on Sunday, the day after the funeral, the Vatican said.

The funeral kicks off nine days of mourning for the late pope, with Mass each day before the cardinals begin their work to select a new occupant of the Chair of Peter.

How Is Francis’ Funeral Different?

Francis’ funeral will look different from his predecessors. That’s because he himself changed the rules for papal funerals.

Francis will be buried in just one wooden coffin lined with zinc rather than the three coffins some other popes were buried in, which were made of cypress, lead, and oak.

The late pontiff will also be buried at the Basilica of St. Mary Major instead of St. Peter’s Basilica, the first pope in more than 350 years to be buried there since Clement IX.

Francis said in his autobiography published last year that a pope should be buried “with dignity, but like any Christian, because the bishop of Rome is a pastor and a disciple, not a powerful man of this world.” He also asked that his tomb be “in the ground; simple, without particular decoration, and with the sole inscription: Franciscus.”

Where To Watch

The Vatican News’ YouTube channel will livestream the funeral and procession to the burial place.

A number of other news outlets and streaming services also plan to livestream the funeral.