KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he will meet President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday to discuss the latest draft of a peace plan, including security guarantees for Ukraine and prospects for future economic development amid Russia’s continued strikes on the country.
The meeting suggests that Washington and Kyiv are closing in on a joint position to end the war, which comes after the White House initially threatened to cut off all assistance to Ukraine if Kyiv did not sign onto an initial 28-point draft plan that made major concessions to Russia.
Washington ultimately backed off on that threat, and Zelensky announced earlier this week that the United States and Ukraine had since jointly developed most of a 20-point peace plan, which on Friday he said is “90 percent done.”
“Our task is to make sure that everything will be 100 percent finished,” he said in voice notes to journalists Friday.
Finalizing the document “is not easy, and nobody says that this 100 percent will happen immediately,” he said. “But nevertheless, we need to get closer to the desired result with every meeting, every conversation.”
Even if Washington and Kyiv settle on terms this weekend, it is far from clear that Moscow would agree.
Ukraine and Russia are not in direct communication about the draft, Zelensky said, with all communication going through Washington. He said he expects to hear a Russian reaction through the U.S. side in the coming days.
Russian President Vladimir Putin declined Ukraine’s request for a Christmas ceasefire and continued to launch drones and missiles at civilian infrastructure in Ukraine over the past several days, killing civilians.
Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev met with U.S. negotiators last weekend and reported back to Putin, leading to follow-up phone conversations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “It was agreed to continue dialogue,” he said, without giving further details.
The latest draft that Trump and Zelensky will discuss Sunday includes several points that Moscow has said are unacceptable, including a peacetime Ukrainian army that numbers 800,000 troops. “For us, it’s a security guarantee,” Zelensky said Friday. “And the American side hears us.”
It also includes language about a proposed demilitarized zone in the country’s eastern Donbas region. Russia has previously insisted Ukraine must withdraw from the entirety of the Donetsk region, which is in Donbas, as a condition to end the war. Ukraine, which still controls several major cities Russia has failed to seize, has balked at this suggestion, saying it would reward Russia’s aggression. Kyiv has long refused to cede territory as part of any agreement.
But Zelensky suggested this week that he would be open to discussing a demilitarized area that the Americans envision as a “free economic zone.” Still, he raised several concerns about this plan and said Ukraine would withdraw its troops only if Russia did the same.
In a recent conversation with businessmen, Putin said he was still insisting that all of the Donbas region be turned over to Russia, according to the Kommersant newspaper.
Natalia Abbakumova in Riga, Latvia, contributed to this report
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