PALM BEACH, Florida, Dec 28 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were “getting a lot closer, maybe very close” to an agreement to end the war in Ukraine, while acknowledging that the fate of the Donbas region remains a key unresolved issue.
The two leaders spoke at a joint news conference after meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Sunday afternoon. Both leaders reported progress on two of the most contentious issues in peace talks – security guarantees for Ukraine and the division of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region that Russia has sought to capture.
Both Trump and Zelenskiy offered few details and did not provide a deadline for completing a peace deal, although Trump said it will be clear “in a few weeks” whether negotiations to end the war will succeed. He said a few “thorny issues” around territory must be resolved.
Zelenskiy said an agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine has been reached. Trump was slightly more cautious, saying that they were 95% of the way to such an agreement, and that he expected European countries to “take over a big part” of that effort with U.S. backing.
French President Emmanuel Macron, in an X post published after Trump met with Zelenskiy, said progress was made on security guarantees. Macron said countries in the so-called “Coalition of the Willing” would meet in Paris in early January to finalise their “concrete contributions.”
Zelenskiy has said previously that he hopes to soften a U.S. proposal for Ukrainian forces to withdraw completely from Donbas, a Russian demand that would mean ceding some territory held by Ukrainian forces. While Moscow insists on getting all of Donbas, Kyiv wants the map frozen at current battle lines.
Both Trump and Zelenskiy said on Sunday the future of the Donbas had not been settled, though the U.S. president said discussions are “moving in the right direction.” The United States, seeking a compromise, has proposed a free economic zone if Ukraine leaves the area, although it remains unclear how that zone would function in practical terms.
“It’s unresolved, but it’s getting a lot closer. That’s a very tough issue,” Trump said.
Nor did the leaders offer much insight into what agreements they had reached on providing security for Ukraine after the war ends, something Zelenskiy described Sunday as “the key milestone in achieving a lasting peace.”
Russia has said any foreign troop deployment in Ukraine is unacceptable.
Zelenskiy said any peace agreement would have to be approved by Ukraine’s parliament, or by a referendum. Trump said he would be willing to speak to parliament if that would secure the deal.
TRUMP AND PUTIN SPEAK BEFORE ZELENSKIY MEETING
Shortly before Zelenskiy and his delegation arrived at Trump’s Florida residence, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke in a call described as “productive” by the U.S. president and “friendly” by Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov.
Ushakov, in Moscow, said Putin told Trump a 60-day ceasefire proposed by the European Union and Ukraine would prolong the war. The Kremlin aide also said Ukraine needs to make a decision regarding the Donbas “without further delay.”
Trump said he and Putin spoke for more than two hours. He said the Russian president pledged to help rebuild Ukraine, including by supplying cheap energy. “Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed,” Trump said. “It sounds a little strange.”
As Trump praised Putin, Zelenskiy tilted his head and smiled.
Trump said he would call Putin again following the meeting with Zelenskiy.
The Kremlin expressed support for Trump’s negotiations.
“The whole world appreciates President Trump and his team’s peace efforts,” Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s special envoy, posted on X early on Monday after Trump’s talks with Zelenskiy.
NUCLEAR PLANT DISCUSSED
U.S. negotiators have also proposed shared control over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Power line repairs have begun there after another local ceasefire brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the agency said on Sunday.
Negotiators, Trump said, have made progress on deciding the fate of the plant, which can “start up almost immediately.” The U.S. president said “it’s a big step” that Russia had not bombed the facility.
Russia controls all of Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, and since its invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago has taken control of about 12% of its territory, including about 90% of the Donbas, 75% of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and slivers of the Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, according to Russian estimates.
The day before Zelenskiy arrived in Florida to meet with Trump, Russian forces attacked Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine with hundreds of missiles and drones, knocking out power and heat in parts of the Ukrainian capital. Zelenskiy has described the weekend attacks as Russia’s response to the U.S.-brokered peace efforts, but Trump on Sunday said he believes Putin and Zelenskiy are serious about peace.
After Saturday’s air attacks, Putin said Moscow would continue waging its war if Kyiv did not seek a quick peace. Russia has steadily advanced on the battlefield in recent months, claiming control over several more settlements on Sunday.
European heads of state joined at least part of Sunday’s meeting by phone. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on social media site X that “Europe is ready to keep working with Ukraine and our US partners,” and added that having ironclad security guarantees will be of “paramount” importance.
A spokesman for U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said European leaders “underlined the importance of robust security guarantees and reaffirmed the urgency of ending this barbaric war as soon as possible.”
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal in Palm Beach, Florida and Gram Slattery in Washington; Additional reporting by Dan Peleschuk, Yuliia Dysa and Vladyslav Smilianets and Bogdan Kochubey in Kyiv, and Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Sergio Non, William Maclean, Rod Nickel and Diane Craft)
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