TRUMP, ZELENSKY HOLD TALKS AS US PUSHES TO END UKRAINE WAR
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Agency report
US President Donald Trump on Sunday said he believed the leaders of Ukraine and Russia were serious about pursuing peace, following separate conversations with both men, as he described the discussions as being in the final stages of his effort to end the war.
Trump, who had pledged to end the conflict on his first day in office, said he was working without a deadline but had launched a year-end diplomatic push as he welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to his Florida estate.
As was the case during Zelensky’s last meeting with Trump in October, Russian President Vladimir Putin also spoke by telephone with the US leader shortly beforehand. Trump immediately struck an optimistic tone about engagement with Moscow, which has been seeking to stave off stronger pressure from Ukraine’s allies in Washington and Europe.
The renewed optimism came despite widespread scepticism in Europe over Putin’s intentions, particularly after Russia launched another large-scale bombardment of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, just as Zelensky was travelling to Florida.
Asked whether Putin was committed to peace despite the attacks, Trump said: “He’s very serious.”
“I can say that I believe Ukraine has made some very strong attacks also, and I don’t say that negatively. I think you probably have to,” Trump told reporters outside his estate.
Ahead of the talks, Trump wrote on social media that his conversation with Putin was “very productive.”
Standing beside Zelensky at the entrance to his estate, Trump said any emerging agreement would also benefit Ukraine.
“There will be a security agreement. It’ll be a strong agreement,” Trump said.
“And the European nations are very much involved in that. They’ll be very much involved in protection, et cetera,” he added.
Trump’s advisers have previously floated the idea of extending NATO-like security guarantees to Ukraine, under which alliance members would, in theory, respond militarily if Russia were to attack again.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin offered a sharper interpretation of Trump’s conversation with Putin, saying the US president agreed that a simple ceasefire “would only prolong the conflict,” while Russia pressed demands for Ukraine to make territorial concessions.
Zelensky, who has previously faced verbal criticism from Trump, has sought to show openness to working within the framework of the US leader’s proposals, even as Putin has given no indication he would accept them.
During their October meeting, Trump declined Zelensky’s request for long-range Tomahawk missiles, while again suggesting that Putin was showing positive signals.
Trump’s meeting with Zelensky was expected to last about an hour, after which the two presidents were scheduled to hold a joint call with leaders of key European allies.
Trump and Putin were also expected to speak again later on Sunday.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who was set to join the call, wrote on X that the Russian strikes on Kyiv were “contrary to President Trump’s expectations and despite the readiness to make compromises” by Zelensky.
The drone and missile attacks on Kyiv temporarily cut power and heating to hundreds of thousands of residents amid freezing temperatures.
A revised peace plan, which emerged after weeks of intense US-Ukraine negotiations, would freeze the conflict along current front lines and could require Ukraine to pull back troops in the east, creating demilitarised buffer zones.
The proposal marks Kyiv’s clearest acknowledgement yet that territorial concessions may be possible, though it does not envisage Ukraine withdrawing from the roughly 20 percent of the eastern Donetsk region it still controls — Russia’s key territorial demand.
Zelensky struck a cautious but positive tone during his meeting with Trump, saying: “It’s very important to our teams talk about strategy.”
The two leaders later moved into the president’s dining room with their top aides, as Trump asked journalists to leave and join them for lunch.
Russia has accused Ukraine and its European allies of attempting to “torpedo” an earlier US-brokered peace effort, while recent battlefield gains — including Russia’s announcement on Saturday that it had captured two additional towns in eastern Ukraine — are seen as bolstering Moscow’s position in negotiations.
“If the authorities in Kyiv don’t want to settle this business peacefully, we’ll resolve all the problems before us by military means,” Putin said on Saturday.
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