President Trump said while hosting President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Sunday that he believed Russia and Ukraine were “maybe very close” to ending a nearly four-year war, even as Russia rejected some terms sought by Ukrainian negotiators.
Mr. Trump met with Mr. Zelensky at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida to discuss a revised 20-point peace plan. Mr. Zelensky said that the latest proposal developed by Ukraine and the United States was nearly complete, and both leaders stressed that the lengthy peace talks would continue.
Significant obstacles remain, chief among them the willingness of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to sign on to the peace framework pushed by Kyiv and Mr. Trump’s top negotiators.
“He wants to see it happen, he wants to see it,” Mr. Trump said Mr. Putin told him about his interest in reaching an agreement. The U.S. president said that before greeting Mr. Zelensky he had spoken with the Russian leader for more than two hours. “He told me very strongly,” Mr. Trump said. “I believe him.”
Still, Mr. Trump seemed intent on Sunday to avoid raising expectations for an imminent deal too high as he fielded questions about when he wanted a peace agreement signed, and whether the Ukrainians could rely on security guarantees from the West should Russia try to continue or restart its invasion.
“It’s possible it doesn’t happen,” Mr. Trump said of a peace deal. “In a few weeks, we’ll know one way or another.”
Mr. Zelensky, for his part, described the talks as “a great meeting” with “a great discussion on all the topics,” saying that the two sides had agreed on the importance of security guarantees for Ukraine. Mr. Trump was more circumspect but said European countries would take the lead. On other issues, there was little indication of a major breakthrough.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the executive arm of the 27-nation European Union, wrote on social media that several European leaders had held an hourlong call with Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky to discuss the peace negotiation discussions.
“There was good progress, which we welcomed,” she said. “Europe is ready to keep working with Ukraine and our US partners to consolidate this progress,” she added. “Paramount to this effort is to have ironclad security guarantees from day one.”
Mr. Putin’s aides spent the day throwing cold water on several ideas put forth by Kyiv and its Western allies, including a proposal that European peacekeepers could be deployed to Ukraine.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky also said little about the contested territory in the Donetsk region, one of the major obstacles that have dragged out negotiations. And the president offered a rosy assessment of another major hurdle, telling reporters that Mr. Putin was interested in working with the Ukrainians to operate the Zaporizhzhia power plant in southern Ukraine. Ukraine has repeatedly said it would not cooperate with Russia to jointly operate the facility.
Daniel Fried, a former U.S. diplomat with experience with Russia and Central and Eastern Europe, said that progress in agreements on security guarantees and the rebuilding of Ukraine was a positive sign. He added, however, that none of it would matter if Mr. Putin ultimately decided not to give an inch on contested territory.
“There is no evidence that Russia is yet ready to deal seriously,” Mr. Fried said in an interview. “The good news is that the more the U.S. is invested in this framework, this 20-point plan, the harder it may be for Putin to play his customary game of deflect and delay.”
The leaders met over lunch in the opulent dining room at Mar-a-Lago, decorated with American and Ukrainian flags. They were flanked by their delegations; Mr. Trump was joined by his chief of staff, Susie Wiles; the deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; Steve Witkoff, the U.S. negotiator; and Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner.
Significant gaps remain between Russia and Ukraine. The dispute over the eastern territory of Donetsk has derailed previous peace talks. Mr. Zelensky told reporters last week that he was ready to pull Ukrainian troops back from the region to create a demilitarized zone, but Russia has made no indication that it would cede control of the region.
Another sticking point is over the Zaporizhzhia plant, which Russia controls and would be key to mining the sort of rare minerals the U.S. wants to access. Mr. Trump suggested that Mr. Putin was open to working with Ukraine. “President Putin is actually working with Ukraine on getting it open,” he said. “It’s a big step, when he’s not bombing that plant.” (Russia has a good reason for not bombing the plant: Russian forces currently occupy it.)
On Sunday, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, suggested in comments to Tass, a Russian news agency, that the Kremlin would not agree to European peacekeepers in the disputed territory of Donetsk. He added that the troops would be “a legitimate target” for Russia’s armed forces and accused Europe of being “the main obstacle” to peace in Ukraine.
Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky appeared largely optimistic after the talks and bestowed compliments on each other.
It was a far cry from the fireworks that erupted during their first bilateral talks at the White House earlier this year, which were cut short after American officials accused Mr. Zelensky of showing insufficient gratitude. The meeting also lacked the fanfare of Mr. Trump’s summit with Mr. Putin in Alaska, which ended with little demonstrable progress toward a peace deal.
Hours after Mr. Zelensky announced on Friday that he planned to meet with Mr. Trump in the days ahead, Russia launched a new wave of missile and drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital, in which two people were killed and dozens wounded.
The meeting with Mr. Zelensky came a day before Mr. Trump was said to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, during a stretch where foreign policy appears to have dominated the president’s attentions. He has taken credit on social media for the cease-fire in the border war between Thailand and Cambodia and launched Christmas Day strikes on ISIS targets in Nigeria.
“I’ve settled eight wars, and this is the most difficult one,” Mr. Trump said with Mr. Zelensky at his side, referring to the imprecise list of conflicts he has said he has mediated. “I thought it would be the middle of the pack.”
Constant Méheut contributed reporting from Kyiv, Jeanna Smialek from Washington and Nataliya Vasilyeva from Istanbul.
Aishvarya Kavi works in the Washington bureau of The Times, helping to cover a variety of political and national news.
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