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President Donald Trump met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Trump’s Florida resort and said the two countries are now “closer than ever before” to a peace agreement. Trump also said the process remains difficult, and he acknowledged that the negotiations could still collapse, leaving the war continuing for years.
Trump linked the meeting to what he described as an “excellent,” two-and-a-half-hour phone conversation with Vladimir Putin. The president said he believes Putin wants peace, even as Russia launched another round of attacks on Ukraine while Zelenskyy traveled to the United States for talks, according to the report.
Standing with Zelenskyy after their meeting, Trump said, “Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed,” and he repeatedly praised Zelenskyy as “brave.” Trump and Zelenskyy both pointed to unresolved issues, including whether Russia can retain Ukrainian territory it controls and how future security guarantees for Ukraine should be structured so it is not invaded again.
After the sit-down, the leaders said they planned calls to a broad set of European leaders. Trump and Zelenskyy included European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the leaders of Finland, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Poland among those they planned to contact.
The Ukrainian president said Trump agreed to host that group again, possibly at the White House, sometime in January. Trump said the meeting could take place in Washington, or “someplace,” while Zelenskyy thanked Trump for his work and said, “Ukraine is ready for peace.”
Trump also said he would follow the Florida meeting with another call to Putin. Earlier Sunday, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said the call between Trump and Putin was initiated by the U.S. side and described it as “friendly, benevolent and businesslike,” while adding that Trump and Putin agreed to speak again “promptly” after Trump’s meeting with Zelenskyy.
Ushakov said there would need to be a “bold, responsible, political decision” from Kyiv on issues including Donbas for a “complete cessation” of hostilities. The report described the future of the Donbas region as a central sticking point, with Trump saying the sides were inching closer to agreement on a “very tough issue,” and Zelenskyy responding that their positions on Donbas differ from Russia’s.
The meeting underscored what the report described as recent momentum in U.S.-brokered drafts of peace proposals. Zelenskyy told reporters Friday that a 20-point draft proposal negotiators have discussed was “about 90% ready,” and the report said the optimism echoed a figure U.S. officials had conveyed when Trump’s chief negotiators met with Zelenskyy in Berlin earlier this month.
The report said the U.S. agreed to offer security guarantees to Ukraine similar to those offered to other NATO members. It added that the proposal came as Zelenskyy said he was prepared to drop Ukraine’s bid to join the security alliance if Ukraine received NATO-like protection designed to safeguard it against future Russian attacks.
Zelenskyy also had talks Christmas Day with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. Zelenskyy said they discussed “certain substantive details” and cautioned that “there is still work to be done on sensitive issues” and that the “weeks ahead may also be intensive.”
The report said Trump has sought to end the war for much of his first year back in office while publicly describing the challenge as complex. It also noted that Trump, as a candidate in 2024, had previously argued he could resolve the conflict quickly, and that he has since emphasized the difficulty of negotiations.
On Ukraine’s side, Zelenskyy has said he would be willing to withdraw troops from the country’s eastern industrial heartland if Russia also pulls back and the area becomes a demilitarized zone monitored by international forces, the report said. On Russia’s side, the report said Putin has publicly demanded recognition of Russian control over areas Russia has captured in four key regions and the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, and that Kyiv has rejected those demands.