EPA/ShutterstockUkraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky has said he will meet US President Donald Trump in Florida at the weekend, as talks continue on ending Russia’s full-scale war.
Zelensky said he expected the meeting to take place on Sunday and to focus on a US-brokered 20-point peace plan, as well as separate proposals for US security guarantees.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin says President Vladimir Putin’s senior aide has held further talks with US officials over the phone, and that Russia has committed to continuing with the negotiations.
Russia has spoken of “slow but steady progress” in talks but has not commented on Zelensky’s offer to withdraw troops from the eastern Donbas, if Russia pulls back too.
Ukraine has sought to secure guarantees from the US as part of a deal, and Zelensky has suggested that a demilitarised “free economic zone” is a potential option for areas of Donbas that Russia has failed to take by force.
On Friday, Zelensky said he had received an update on the latest technical talks from his most senior negotiator, Rustem Umerov.
He wrote on social media: “We are not losing a single day. We have agreed on a meeting at the highest level – with President Trump in the near future. A lot can be decided before the New Year.”
A White House meeting between Zelensky and Trump in February, the first after the US president returned to office, descended into a hostile shouting match, though their most recent meeting at the White House in October was far more amicable.
ReutersConfirmation of planned top-level talks came after the Ukrainian leader said he had spoken to Trump’s chief negotiators, special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, for an hour over the phone on Christmas Day.
He said the latest round of negotiations had generated “new ideas” on how to end the war, and described it as a “really good conversation”.
The White House has proposed establishing what would in effect be a demilitarised zone in eastern Ukraine where both sides agree not to deploy troops – a compromise that would avoid settling the intractable question of legal ownership over the contested territory.
Zelensky signalled on Wednesday that if Ukraine were to pull back by up to 40km (25 miles) from the front line in the east to create an economic zone, then Russia would have to do the same from Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine’s industrial heartland in the Donbas.
Ukraine has secured a number of changes to an earlier 28-point draft plan, which was formulated by Steve Witkoff but widely seen as being favourable to Russia.
Zelensky told reporters on Friday that the weekend talks in Florida would focus on several documents, including US security guarantees and a separate economic agreement.
However, Zelensky has repeatedly said the question of territory has proved to be the most difficult issue to resolve, along with the future of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
The White House has proposed Ukraine and Russia split the energy generated by the plant, the largest in Europe. Russian troops currently control it.
Russia is unlikely to agree to a number of points in the updated US plan, especially its territorial proposals. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused “groups of states, primarily Western European” of seeking to derail the diplomatic progress that had been made.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed further talks would take place between Russian and American delegations, following last weekend’s meeting between US negotiators and a delegation led by Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Miami.
Another close aide, Yuri Ushakov, had held further talks with the White House over the phone, and more were planned, Peskov added.
Zelensky outlined the latest version of the plan this week, the first time since the original 28-point draft was leaked in November.
Latest proposals commit the US and Europe to providing security guarantees modelled on Nato’s Article 5, committing allies to providing military support in the event Russia launches a renewed invasion.
The deal would also see Ukraine’s military maintained at 800,000 personnel, a level the Kremlin has demanded be cut.
Meanwhile, fighting and aerial strikes have continued. Ukrainian officials have reported at least four deaths as a result of strikes since the morning of 25 December, while the air force said it had shot down 73 drones overnight.
Russia also said it had shot down projectiles overnight, including British Storm Shadow missiles. Ukraine’s air force said it had struck oil and gas refineries in Rostov and Krasnodar.
