KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump will take place “in the near future,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday, signaling progress in talks to end the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine.
“We are not wasting a day. We have agreed on a summit meeting with President Trump in the near future,” Zelensky wrote on X.
“A lot can be decided before the New Year,” he added.
Zelensky's statement came after he said Thursday he had a “good conversation” with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Trump has launched a massive diplomatic campaign to end the war, but his efforts have been met with sharply conflicting demands from Moscow and Kyiv.
Zelensky said on Tuesday he would be willing to withdraw troops from the country's eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end the war if Moscow also retreated and the area became a demilitarized zone controlled by international forces.
While Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday there was “slow but steady progress” in peace talks, Russia has given no indication it would agree to any troop withdrawals from lands it has seized.
In fact, Moscow insisted that Ukraine give up the remaining territory it still holds in the Donbass—an ultimatum that Ukraine rejected. Russia has captured most of Lugansk and about 70% of Donetsk, two territories that make up the Donbass.
Ground attacks by Russian drones on the city of Nikolaev and its suburbs on Friday night left part of the city without electricity.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said it struck a major Russian oil refinery on Thursday using British Storm Shadow missiles.
The Ukrainian General Staff said its forces struck the Novoshakhtinsky oil refinery in Russia's Rostov region. “Multiple explosions were recorded. The target was hit,” it was written on Telegram.
Governor of the Rostov region Yuri Slyusar said that a firefighter was injured while extinguishing the fire.
Ukraine's long-range drone strikes on Russian oil refineries are aimed at depriving Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs for a full-scale invasion. Russia wants to cripple Ukraine's energy grid, seeking to deny civilians access to heat, light and running water in what Kyiv officials say is an attempt to “use winter as a weapon.”
