Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he will meet Donald Trump in Florida over the weekend to discuss the most politically sensitive parts of a US peace proposal that would ultimately be presented to Russia.
The meeting, which Ukrainian officials expect to take place at the US president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, will mark the culmination of weeks of intense diplomacy that began in November with the publication of a 28-point plan drawn up by the US with the participation of Russian officials.
Zelenskyy told reporters in a WhatsApp chat on Friday that he and Trump had “a broad agenda” and that the meeting was “specifically meant to finalise as much as we can”.
However, Trump made clear that Zelenskyy’s latest 20-point peace plan was not guaranteed to win his stamp of approval.
Zelenskyy “doesn’t have anything until I approve it”, Trump told Politico on Friday. “So we’ll see what he’s got.”
The US president did express some optimism about meeting his Ukrainian counterpart though: “I think it’s going to go good with him. I think it’s going to go good with [Russia’s President Vladimir] Putin.”
Trump also told the outlet that he would speak with Putin “soon, as much as I want.”
At Sunday’s Mar-a-Lago meeting, security guarantees for Ukraine will be “at the top of the agenda”, according to Zelenskyy, who noted he wanted to “go through a few nuances” of the pledges made by the US and the arrangements with European countries.
The presidents will also speak about what Zelenskyy said is an “economic agreement” for reconstruction with US help after the war. “For now, there are only basic drafts, although there will be several agreements [on the economic deal],” he added.
And Zelenskyy added that he would discuss the contentious issue of territory with Trump. The original US draft demanded Ukraine cede the parts of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region it still controlled, sending Ukrainian and European negotiators scrambling to revise what Kyiv described as unacceptable concessions.
“I cannot say right now whether anything will be ready by the end,” Zelenskyy said, adding he and Trump would “finalise as much as we can”.
Zelenskyy wrote on X earlier on Friday morning that “a lot can be decided before the New Year”.
He is to be joined in Florida by his team of negotiators. Sergiy Kyslytsya, a member of the delegation, said the US and Ukrainian positions had significantly converged. “Now it’s the moment for two leaders to bless it, adjust or calibrate if necessary,” he told the Financial Times.
Weeks of intense negotiations spread between Florida, Berlin and Abu Dhabi brought the plan closer to Ukrainian expectations. However, Ksylytsya admitted to reporters in Kyiv that a 20-point peace plan still contained provisions Ukraine did not agree with.
Zelenskyy told reporters on Friday that this plan was “90 per cent ready” but that discussions on “sensitive issues” — including possible territorial concessions — still needed to happen in a one-on-one meeting with Trump.
European leaders were also planning a new round of talks in January with the “coalition of the willing” — countries, including the UK, which have pledged to help support Ukraine and peace talks — a French official close to the Élysée Palace said on Friday.
There was “no solution but to keep trying” to convince Russia of a workable plan, the official said, adding that at some stage Europeans would have to have a direct dialogue with Putin, as French President Emmanuel Macron has suggested.
“Russia is constantly looking for reasons not to agree” to a peace deal, Zelenskyy told reporters. But he said it was crucial for Ukraine to keep pressing ahead with its partners on a plan.
“The answer is simple: if Ukraine demonstrates its position, it is constructive. If Russia does not agree, it means the pressure is insufficient,” he said, adding he would talk with Trump about further pressing Russia.
Armin Laschet, a senior MP from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrats, called on Thursday for Berlin to be a central part of any effort to resume contact with Moscow.
Unresolved issues include conditions under which Kyiv would accept a withdrawal of combat forces from some parts of the front line, the fate of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and the precise contours of the security guarantees the US would be ready to offer Kyiv.
Zelenskyy has said he would be ready to order a pullback of “heavy forces” from potential demilitarised zones if Russian troops mirrored the withdrawal. Kyiv would then maintain sovereignty over the fortress belt of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, part of the old industrial powerhouse of eastern Ukraine that Moscow has tried to seize since its 2022 full-scale invasion.
Moscow still insists its maximalist demands should form the basis of any peace talks because Putin remains confident his army can defeat Ukraine on the battlefield.
“The strategic initiative is completely in the hands of Russia’s armed forces. That means our forces are advancing across the entire front line,” the president said last week during his end-of-year marathon press conference.
Russian forces have kept pressing in recent weeks, entering the town of Huliaipole in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and taking control of most of the stronghold of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region. But Ukrainian counter-attacks have forced Russian troops to pull back from most areas of the town of Kupiansk in Kharkiv region, despite the Russian command announcing its capture in November.
Putin insisted during a late-night meeting with business leaders that Moscow still saw control of the entire Donbas region as a precondition for any peace, according to Russian newspaper Kommersant. He also reportedly suggested that the Zaporizhzhia power plant could be managed by both Russia and the US, excluding Ukraine.
Additional reporting by Sarah White in Paris, Laura Pitel in Berlin and Steff Chávez in New York
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