Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky has said he will meet US President Donald Trump in Florida at the weekend, as talks continue on ending Russia’s full-scale war.
Zelensky said he expected the meeting to take place on Sunday and to focus on a US-brokered 20-point peace plan, as well as separate proposals for US security guarantees.
However, in a sign of the gulf between Moscow and Kyiv, a senior Russian official said that plan was “radically different” to the one it was negotiating with Washington.
Russia has spoken of “slow but steady progress” in talks but has not commented on Zelensky’s offer to withdraw troops from the eastern Donbas, if Russia pulls back too.
Ukraine has sought to secure guarantees from the US as part of a deal, and Zelensky has suggested that a demilitarised “free economic zone” is a potential option for areas of Donbas that Russia has failed to take by force.
On Friday, Zelensky told reporters that the 20-point plan was 90% complete: “Our task is to make sure everything is 100% ready.”
He wrote on social media: “We are not losing a single day. We have agreed on a meeting at the highest level – with President Trump in the near future. A lot can be decided before the new year.”
President Vladimir Putin’s senior aides have held further talks with US officials over the phone, after Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev returned from a meeting in Florida last weekend.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov was positive about latest developments, but accused Ukraine of trying to “torpedo” talks on the US plan.
“I think December 25, 2025, will remain in all our memories as a milestone when we truly came close to a solution. But whether we can make the final push and reach an agreement depends on our work and the political will of the other side,” he said in comments to Russian state TV on Friday.
Shortly after details of Zelensky’s imminent visit to Florida emerged, the mayor of Ukraine’s major northeastern city, Kharkiv, said two people had been killed and several others wounded in a Russian air strike.
