President Donald Trump on Sunday said Ukraine and Russia were “closer than ever before” to a peace deal as he hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at his Florida resort, but he acknowledged negotiations are complex and could still break down, causing the war to drag on for years.
The president's remarks came as the two leaders met for discussions following what Mr. Trump called an “excellent” two-and-a-half-hour phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine started the war nearly four years ago. Mr Trump insisted he believed Putin still wanted peace even as Russia launched a new round of attacks on Ukraine while Mr Zelensky flew to the United States for the latest round of talks.
“Russia wants Ukraine to succeed,” Trump said during an afternoon news conference after meeting with Zelensky, whom he has repeatedly praised as “brave.”
Both Trump and Zelensky acknowledged that pressing questions remain, including whether Russia can retain the Ukrainian territory it controls, as well as security guarantees for Ukraine to ensure it is not invaded again in the future. After the discussion, they called a wide group of European leaders, including Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, as well as the leaders of Finland, France, Germany, Britain and Poland.
Zelensky thanked Trump for his work. “Ukraine is ready for peace,” he said.
Trump and Putin will talk again
Trump said he would call Putin again after the meeting. Earlier on Sunday, Putin's foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said that the conversation between Trump and Putin was initiated by the American side, lasted more than an hour and was “friendly, well-wishing and businesslike.” Mr. Ushakov said Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin agreed to talk again “immediately” after Mr. Trump’s meeting with Mr. Zelensky.
But Mr. Ushakov added that for a “complete cessation” of hostilities, Kyiv needed a “bold, responsible political decision” on the bitterly disputed Donbass region in eastern Ukraine and other contentious issues.
Overnight, three Russian-fired guided bombs hit private homes in the eastern city of Slavyansk, according to the head of the local military administration, Vadim Lakh. Three people were injured and one man died, Mr. Lach said in a message on the Telegram messenger app.
The strike came a day after Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital with ballistic missiles and drones on Saturday, killing at least one person and wounding 27, Ukrainian authorities said. Explosions rocked across Kyiv as the attack began in the early morning and lasted for several hours.
However, Mr Trump said he still believed Putin was “very serious” about ending the war.
“I believe that Ukraine also launched some very strong attacks,” Mr. Trump told reporters as Mr. Zelensky stood next to him. “And I'm not saying this negatively. I think you probably have to. I'm not saying this negatively. But I don't think he told me this, but there were some explosions in different parts of Russia. I don't think I know. I don't think it came from the Congo.”
Mr. Trump noted that it was possible that the talks would fail.
“I think we'll find out in a few weeks one way or another,” Trump said. “We might have something where one item that you don't think about is big and breaks it down into pieces. Look, these were very difficult negotiations. Very detailed.”
The face-to-face meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky underscored the apparent progress made by Mr. Trump's top negotiators in recent weeks as the two sides exchanged draft peace plans and continued to shape a proposal to end the fighting. Mr. Zelensky told reporters on Friday that the draft 20-point proposal negotiators discussed is “about 90% ready,” echoing the figure and optimism expressed by U.S. officials when Mr. Trump’s top negotiators met with Mr. Zelensky in Berlin earlier this month.
During recent negotiations, the United States agreed to provide Ukraine with certain security guarantees similar to those offered to other NATO members. The proposal came after Mr Zelensky said he was willing to give up his country's bid to join the security alliance if Ukraine received NATO-like protection to protect it from future Russian attacks.
“Intense” weeks ahead
Mr Zelensky also spoke on Christmas Day with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Mr Trump's son-in-law. The Ukrainian leader said they discussed “some significant details” and warned that “there is still work to be done on sensitive issues” and “the coming weeks could also be tense.”
The US president has worked to end the war in Ukraine for much of his first year in office, showing exasperation with both Zelensky and Putin but publicly acknowledging the difficulty of ending the conflict. Long gone are the days when, as a 2024 candidate, he boasted that he could resolve a conflict in a day. Indeed, Mr. Trump referred several times on Sunday to the difficulty of resolving the conflict.
After receiving Zelensky at the White House in October, Trump demanded that both Russia and Ukraine stop fighting and “stay on the front lines,” implying that Moscow should be able to keep the territory it seized from Ukraine.
Zelensky said last week that he would be willing to withdraw troops from Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end the war if Russia also retreated and the area became a demilitarized zone controlled by international forces.
Putin wants to preserve Russia's gains and much more
Mr. Putin has publicly said he wants all the territory in four key regions captured by his troops, as well as the Crimean peninsula illegally annexed in 2014, to be recognized as Russian territory. He also insisted that Ukraine withdraw from some areas in eastern Ukraine that had not been captured by Moscow's forces. Kyiv publicly rejected all these demands.
The Kremlin also wants Ukraine to abandon its bid to join NATO. He warned that he would not allow the deployment of any troops from members of the military alliance and would treat them as a “legitimate target.”
Mr Putin also said Ukraine should limit the size of its army and give official status to the Russian language – demands he has made since the start of the conflict.
This month, Mr. Ushakov told the business daily Kommersant that Russian police and national guards would remain in parts of Donetsk – one of the two main regions, along with Luhansk, that make up the Donbass – even if they become a demilitarized zone under a promising peace plan.
Mr. Ushakov warned that trying to reach a compromise could take a long time. He said the US proposals, which took into account Russia's demands, were “worsened” by changes proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.
Mr. Trump has been somewhat receptive to Mr. Putin's demands, arguing that the Russian president could be persuaded to end the war if Kyiv agrees to cede Ukrainian lands in the Donbass region and if Western powers offer economic incentives for Russia's return to the global economy.
This story was reported by the Associated Press. Ms. Kim reported from Washington and Ms. Morton from London. Associated Press writers Ilya Novikov in Kyiv, Nicholas Ricciardi in Denver and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.
