Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks throughout a media convention on the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025.
Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP
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Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — President Donald Trump will host his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Sunday to attempt to shut out a peace settlement that may finish practically 4 years of warfare that started with Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The 2 will meet at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s personal membership in Palm Seashore, Florida, the place the U.S. president is spending the vacations and has an agenda largely crammed with every day rounds of golf. Zelenskyy mentioned the 2 deliberate to debate safety and financial agreements and he’ll increase “territorial issues” as Moscow and Kyiv stay fiercely at odds over the destiny of the Donbas area in japanese Ukraine.
Within the days earlier than the assembly, Russia has intensified its assaults on Ukraine’s capital, utilizing missiles and drones to assault Kyiv and attempt to enhance the stress on Zelenskyy.
“Ukraine is willing to do whatever it takes to stop this war,” Zelenskyy posted Saturday on X. “We need to be strong at the negotiating table.”
In response to the assaults, he wrote: “We want peace, and Russia demonstrates a desire to continue the war. If the whole world — Europe and America — is on our side, together we will stop” Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In a gathering with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Saturday, Zelenskyy mentioned the important thing to peace is “pressure on Russia and sufficient, strong support for Ukraine.” To that finish, Carney introduced $2.5 billion Canadian (US$1.8 billion) extra in financial help from his authorities to assist Ukraine rebuild.
Denouncing the “barbarism” of Russia’s newest assaults on Kyiv, Carney credited each Zelenskyy and Trump with creating the circumstances for a “just and lasting peace” at a vital second.
Trump and Zelenskyy sitting down face-to-face additionally underscored the obvious progress made by Trump’s prime negotiators in current weeks as the edges traded draft peace plans and continued to form a proposal to finish the combating. Zelenskyy advised reporters Friday that the 20-point draft proposal negotiators have mentioned is “about 90% ready” — echoing a determine, and the optimism, that U.S. officers conveyed when Trump’s chief negotiators met with Zelenskyy in Berlin earlier this month.
Through the current talks, the U.S. agreed to supply sure safety ensures to Ukraine just like these provided to different members of NATO. The proposal got here as Zelenskyy mentioned he was ready to drop his nation’s bid to hitch the safety alliance if Ukraine obtained NATO-like safety that may be designed to safeguard it in opposition to future Russian assaults.
‘Intensive’ weeks forward
Zelenskyy additionally spoke on Christmas Day with U.S. particular envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. The Ukrainian chief mentioned in a publish on X that they mentioned “certain substantive details of the ongoing work” and cautioned in a subsequent publish that “there is still work to be done on sensitive issues” and “the weeks ahead may also be intensive.”
The U.S. president has been working to finish the warfare in Ukraine for a lot of his first 12 months again in workplace, exhibiting irritation with each Zelenskyy and Putin whereas publicly acknowledging the problem of ending the battle. Lengthy gone are the times when, as a candidate in 2024, he boasted that he might resolve the combating in a day.
After internet hosting Zelenskyy on the White Home in October, Trump demanded that each Russia and Ukraine halt combating and “stop at the battle line,” implying that Moscow ought to have the ability to maintain the territory it has seized from Ukraine.
Earlier than Sunday’s assembly, Zelenskyy mentioned the important thing points that stay unresolved between Ukraine and the U.S. embody questions surrounding territory, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear energy plant and funding for Ukraine’s postwar restoration. He mentioned there are also excellent technical issues associated to safety ensures and monitoring mechanisms.
Ukraine has conveyed its place to the U.S., Zelenskyy mentioned, including that Trump administration officers would relay that to Russia.
Zelenskyy additionally mentioned final week that he could be prepared to withdraw troops from Ukraine’s japanese industrial heartland as a part of a plan to finish the warfare, if Russia additionally pulls again and the world turns into a demilitarized zone monitored by worldwide forces.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov advised reporters Friday that the Kremlin had already been involved with U.S.
“It was agreed upon to continue the dialogue,” he mentioned.
Putin needs Russian beneficial properties stored, and extra
Putin has publicly mentioned he needs all of the areas in 4 key areas which have been captured by his forces, in addition to the Crimean Peninsula, illegally annexed in 2014, to be acknowledged as Russian territory. He additionally has insisted that Ukraine withdraw from some areas in japanese Ukraine that Moscow’s forces have not captured. Kyiv has publicly rejected all these calls for.
The Kremlin additionally needs Ukraine to desert its bid to hitch NATO. It warned that it would not settle for the deployment of any troops from members of the army alliance and would view them as a “legitimate target.”
Putin additionally has mentioned Ukraine should restrict the scale of its military and provides official standing to the Russian language, calls for he has constructed from the outset of the battle.
Putin’s overseas affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, advised the enterprise every day Kommersant this month that Russian police and nationwide guard would keep in elements of Donetsk -– one of many two main areas, together with Luhansk, that make up the Donbas area — even when they grow to be a demilitarized zone below a potential peace plan.
Ushakov cautioned that attempting to succeed in a compromise might take a very long time. He mentioned U.S. proposals that took under consideration Russian calls for had been “worsened” by alterations proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.
Trump has been considerably receptive to Putin’s calls for, making the case that the Russian president might be persuaded to finish the warfare if Kyiv agrees to cede Ukrainian land within the Donbas area and if Western powers supply financial incentives to convey Russia again into the worldwide financial system.
