Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky will sit down in Florida this weekend to chat about the ongoing peace plan for Ukraine and Russia.
Zelensky told journalists that the two leaders will discuss security guarantees for Ukraine during Sunday’s talks, and that the 20-point plan under discussion ‘is about 90% ready’.
Economic agreements also will be discussed, he said, but he was unable to confirm ‘whether anything will be finalised’, including issues over territory.
Though Ukraine wants the Europeans to be involved in the peace discussions with President Trump, its unlikely any delegates would be able to join on such short notice.
‘We must, without doubt, find some format in the near future in which not only Ukraine and the US are present, but Europe is represented as well,’ he said.
The announced meeting is the latest development in an extensive US-led diplomatic push to end the nearly four-year Russia-Ukraine war, but efforts have run into sharply conflicting demands by Moscow and Kyiv.
Zelensky’s announcement came after he said on Thursday he had a ‘good conversation’ with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday that the Kremlin had already been in contact with US representatives since Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev met US envoys in Florida over the weekend.
Trump has unleashed an extensive diplomatic push to end the war, but his efforts have run into sharply conflicting demands by Moscow and Kyiv.
Zelensky said on Tuesday he would be willing to withdraw troops from the country’s eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end the war, if Moscow also pulls back and the area becomes a demilitarised zone monitored by international forces.
Though Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that there had been ‘slow but steady progress’ in the peace talks, Russia has given no indication that it will agree to any kind of withdrawal from land it has seized.
In fact, Moscow has insisted that Ukraine relinquish the remaining territory it still holds in the Donbas – an ultimatum that Ukraine has rejected.
Russia has captured most of Luhansk and about 70% of Donetsk – the two areas that make up the Donbas.
The question of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant
How the Zaporizhzhia plant, which is under Russian occupation, will be managed is another contentious issue that Trump and Zelensky will likely speak about.
The US is proposing a solution with Ukraine and Russia, with each country having an equal stake in the enterprise.
Point 14 of the 20-point plan, which covers territories that cut across the eastern front line, and Point 12, which discusses management of the Zaporizhzhia plant, will likely be major sticking points in the talks.
‘We are in a situation where the Russians want us to leave the Donetsk region, and the Americans are trying to find a way so that it is ‘not a way out’ – because we are against leaving – they want to find a demilitarised zone or a free economic zone in this, that is, a format that can provide for the views of both sides,’ Zelensky added.
More difficult discussions would require hammering out how far troops would be required to move back and where international forces would be stationed.
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