President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine will visit Mar-a-Lago on Sunday for a much-anticipated meeting with President Trump, bearing a revised 20-point peace plan aimed at ending the war with Russia.
The proposal, developed by Ukrainian and U.S. negotiators, covers a wide range of issues, including security guarantees that Kyiv seeks to prevent future Russian aggression. But Mr. Zelensky has acknowledged that two major sticking points have emerged in talks between Washington and Kyiv: the fate of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and control of a Russian-occupied nuclear power plant.
Both issues are expected to be up for discussion when Mr. Zelensky sits down with Mr. Trump at his estate in Palm Beach, Fla., on Sunday afternoon.
Ukraine has been pushing for such a meeting for weeks, since the United States restarted its diplomatic efforts to broker a settlement.
At the same time, Mr. Zelensky has repeatedly questioned whether Moscow was serious about pursuing peace or simply stalling for time. Relentless Russian strikes on civilian targets, including a huge barrage fired at Ukraine’s capital on Saturday, Mr. Zelensky said, proved that the Kremlin had no real interest in ending the war.
“Russia keeps tormenting our cities and our people. Moscow has turned down even the proposals for a Christmas cease-fire and is intensifying the brutality of its missile and drone strikes,” he said on social media while en route to Florida. “This is a clear signal of how they truly regard diplomacy there. So far, not seriously enough.”
Analysts have said that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, emboldened by his forces’ slow but steady advances on the battlefield, is unlikely to accept the peace proposal, and will instead stick to his maximalist demands. Those include Ukraine ceding a significant part of its territory, shrinking its military and ruling out a formal alliance with the West.
Mr. Zelensky has been keen to show he is fully committed to Mr. Trump’s push for peace, amenable and willing to make compromises. In recent days, he also has appeared at times to be trying to call the Kremlin’s bluff.
He told reporters on Tuesday that he was willing to pull Ukrainian troops back from areas of the Donbas region still under Kyiv’s control and turn those areas into a demilitarized zone — as long as Russia withdraws its forces from an equivalent area of land. Russia has insisted on keeping all of the land it has captured since its full-scale invasion almost four years ago, and has also demanded the portions of the Donbas that Ukraine still holds.
Mr. Zelensky has also expressed openness to holding his country’s first general election since 2019 — a Russian demand that Mr. Trump has latched onto — as long as security can be guaranteed. That shifted the onus from him back to the White House and Russia.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, has seemingly been careful not to outright reject the peace proposal, perhaps to avoid angering Mr. Trump. Instead, Russian officials have called for more discussions and dialogue.
Mr. Putin has sought to demonstrate strength and showcase Russia’s resolve, effectively suggesting that Ukraine should submit to his demands before the war gets even worse.
In early December, hours before Trump envoys visited him in Moscow for talks, Mr. Putin visited a Russian command post and claimed the capture of a Ukrainian city that, to date, has still not fully fallen. He mirrored that move again on Saturday, visiting another Russian military command post, hours before Mr. Zelensky was due to arrive in Florida.
Dressed in fatigues, Mr. Putin said that “smart people” in the West were now urging Kyiv to “accept dignified terms for ending the conflict” and providing “good basic conditions” for Ukraine’s long-term security and economic recovery.
As the Russian Army advances, Mr. Putin said, Russia’s interest in negotiating Ukraine’s withdrawal from the Donbas was waning. “If the Kyiv authorities do not wish to settle the matter peacefully,” he warned, Moscow will achieve its objectives “through armed means.”
Ivan Nechepurenko and Ashley Ahn contributed reporting.
The post Zelensky to Meet With Trump at Mar-a-Lago About Plan to End War With Russia appeared first on New York Times.
