US, Ukraine ‘a lot closer’ on peace deal, Donald Trump says
Andrea Shalal And Gram Slattery
Updated ,first published
Palm Beach/Washington: US President Donald Trump said he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are “much closer, maybe very close” to a deal to end the war in Ukraine, but both leaders acknowledged some thorny details remain unresolved.
The two leaders spoke at a joint press conference late Sunday afternoon (Monday morning AEDT) following a several-hour meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Trump said it would become clear “within a few weeks” whether negotiations to end the war will be successful.
Zelensky said that an agreement was reached on Ukraine’s security guarantees. Trump was a little more cautious, saying that they were 95 percent of the way to such an agreement and that he expected European countries to “undertake a large part” of this effort with US support.
Zelensky had previously said he hoped to soften a US proposal for a complete withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine; This was a demand from Russia that would mean giving up some territory held by Ukrainian forces.
After the meeting, both Trump and Zelensky said that the future of Donbas has not yet been determined. “The problem is not solved, but it is getting closer. This is a very difficult issue,” Trump said.
Just before Zelensky and his delegation arrived at Trump’s residence in Florida, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke in a meeting described as “productive” by the US president and “friendly” by Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov.
Ushakov said that in Moscow, Putin told Trump that the 60-day ceasefire proposed by the European Union and Ukraine would prolong the war. The Kremlin aide also said Ukraine should make a decision on Donbas “without further delay.” He said the Russian government had agreed to establish working groups that would focus on economic and security concerns to resolve the dispute.
The meeting took place after Russia’s attacks on Kiev
Zelensky arrived at Mar-a-Lago early on Sunday afternoon (early Monday AEDT) as Russian airstrikes piled pressure on Kiev.
Russia hit Ukraine’s capital and other parts of Ukraine with hundreds of missiles and drones on Saturday, knocking out electricity and heat in parts of Kiev. Zelensky described the weekend attacks as Russia’s response to U.S.-brokered peace efforts, but Trump said he believed Putin and Zelensky were serious about peace.
He said he would call Putin again after meeting with US president Zelensky.
Zelensky had previously told reporters that he planned to discuss with Trump the fate of the disputed Donbas region, as well as the future of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and other issues.
Russia demands more advances on the battlefield
Putin said on Saturday that Moscow would continue the war if Kiev did not seek a quick peace. Russia has made steady progress on the battlefield in recent months, taking control of several more settlements on Sunday.
Although Kiev and Washington have agreed on many issues, the issue of which region will be transferred to Russia is still unresolved. While Moscow insists on taking all of Donbas, Kiev wants the map to be frozen at current battle lines.
Seeking a compromise, the United States has proposed creating a free economic zone if Ukraine leaves the region, but it remains unclear how this zone would function in practical terms.
US negotiators also proposed joint control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Power line repairs had begun there following another local ceasefire brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the agency said Sunday.
Russia controls all of Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, and since invading Ukraine nearly four years ago, it has seized control of about 12 percent of its territory, including about 90 percent of Donbas, 75 percent of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and slivers of the Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, according to Russian estimates.
Putin said on December 19 that a peace deal should be based on the conditions he had set in 2024: Ukraine’s withdrawal from all Donbas, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, and Kiev’s formal abandonment of its goal of joining NATO.
Zelensky’s past encounters with Trump have not always gone smoothly, but the latest meeting came after weeks of diplomatic efforts. Although European allies have been left out of the loop at times, they have stepped up efforts to outline a postwar security guarantee for Kiev that the United States will support.
Zelensky said that he had a detailed phone conversation with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer before his visit to Mar-a-Lago. At some point during the meeting in Florida, Trump and Zelensky will have a phone call with European leaders, Trump said.
The 20-item plan was created based on the 28-item plan led by Russia, which emerged from the meetings between US Special Representative Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Russian Special Representative Kirill Dmitriev and was made public in November.
In later talks between Ukrainian officials and US negotiators, a Kiev-friendly 20-point plan emerged.
Reuters
