Zelensky plans to meet Trump on Sunday for talks on peace deal

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has mentioned he’ll meet his US counterpart Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday, as talks proceed on ending Russia’s full-scale struggle.

Zelensky mentioned he anticipated the assembly to concentrate on a US-brokered peace plan, and separate proposals for US safety ensures. However a senior Russian official mentioned the plan was “radically totally different” to the one it was negotiating with the US.

Moscow has spoken of “sluggish however regular progress” in talks however has not commented on Zelensky’s provide to withdraw troops from Ukraine’s jap Donbas area, if Russia pulls again too.

On Saturday night time, blasts have been heard in Kyiv, in what Ukrainian officers mentioned was a brand new Russian aerial assault.

Kyiv Main Vitaliy Klitschko mentioned Ukraine’s air defence forces have been repelling the assault, urging residents of the Ukrainian capital to go shelters. It was not instantly clear whether or not there have been any casualties.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Moscow presently controls about 75% of the Donetsk area, and a few 99% of the neighbouring Luhansk. The areas are collectively generally known as Donbas.

Ukraine has sought to safe ensures from the US as a part of a peace deal, and Zelensky has advised {that a} demilitarised “free financial zone” is a possible possibility for areas of Donbas that Russia has did not take by pressure.

On Friday, Zelensky informed reporters that the 20-point plan was 90% full: “Our activity is to verify all the things is 100% prepared.”

He wrote on social media: “We aren’t shedding a single day. We’ve agreed on a gathering on the highest stage – with President Trump within the close to future. So much will be determined earlier than the brand new yr.”

However in an interview with Politico printed on Friday, Trump mentioned his Ukrainian counterpart “does not have something till I approve it”.

“I feel it is going to go good with him. I feel it is going to go good with [Vladimir] Putin,” Trump mentioned.

He additionally mentioned he expects to talk with the Russian president “quickly”.

Trump additionally informed Politico that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would go to him within the coming days.

Putin’s senior aides have held additional talks with US officers over the cellphone, after Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev returned from a gathering in Florida final weekend.

Russian Deputy Overseas Minister Sergey Ryabkov was constructive about newest developments, however accused Ukraine of making an attempt to “torpedo” talks on the US plan.

“I feel December 25, 2025, will stay in all our reminiscences as a milestone once we really got here near an answer. However whether or not we will make the ultimate push and attain an settlement relies on our work and the political will of the opposite aspect,” he mentioned in feedback to Russian state TV on Friday.

Shortly after particulars of Zelensky’s imminent go to to Florida emerged, the mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest metropolis within the north-east, mentioned two individuals had been killed and several other others wounded in a Russian air strike.

Zelensky has met Trump a number of occasions this yr, since an preliminary White Home assembly in February descended into a hostile shouting match. Their most up-to-date assembly on the White Home in October was way more amicable.

Affirmation of deliberate top-level talks got here after the Ukrainian chief mentioned he had spoken to Trump’s chief negotiators, particular envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, for an hour over the cellphone on Christmas Day.

He mentioned the most recent spherical of negotiations had generated “new ideas” on how to end the war, and described it as a “actually good dialog”.

The White Home has proposed establishing what would in impact be a demilitarised zone in jap Ukraine the place each side agree to not deploy troops – a compromise that may keep away from settling the intractable query of authorized possession over the contested territory.

Zelensky signalled on Wednesday that if Ukraine have been to drag again by as much as 40km (25 miles) from the entrance line within the east to create an financial zone, then Russia must do the identical from Russian-occupied elements of Ukraine’s industrial heartland within the Donbas.

Ukraine has secured quite a few modifications to an earlier 28-point draft plan, which was formulated by Witkoff however broadly seen as being beneficial to Russia.

Zelensky informed reporters on Friday that the weekend talks in Florida would concentrate on a number of paperwork, together with US safety ensures and a separate financial settlement.

Nevertheless, Zelensky has repeatedly mentioned the query of territory has proved to be essentially the most tough problem to resolve, together with the way forward for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear energy plant.

The White Home has proposed Ukraine and Russia cut up the vitality generated by the plant, the most important in Europe. Russian troops presently management it.

Russia is unlikely to comply with quite a few factors within the up to date US plan, particularly its territorial proposals. Overseas ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused “teams of states, primarily Western European” of looking for to derail the diplomatic progress that had been made.

Putin has repeatedly warned that Ukrainian troops should withdraw from all of Donbas or Russia will seize it, rejecting any compromise over how one can finish the struggle.

Zelensky outlined the most recent model of the plan this week, the primary time for the reason that unique 28-point draft was leaked in November.

Newest proposals commit the US and Europe to offering safety ensures modelled on Nato’s Article 5, committing allies to offering army help within the occasion Russia launches a renewed invasion.

The deal would additionally see Ukraine’s army maintained at 800,000 personnel, a stage the Kremlin has demanded be reduce.