President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky heads to the United States via Canada ahead of a weekend of high-stakes diplomacy and renewed peace efforts amid deadly Russian bombing about the capital of Ukraine.
Zelensky is going to meet with President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday, after meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and telephone calls with European leaders on Saturday.
As Trump ramps up pressure to end the war, Zelensky said the critical question of U.S.-backed security guarantees for Ukraine to prevent further Russian incursion would be up to the U.S. president.
“It is very important for us that there is a signal that we want legally binding security guarantees,” Zelensky told Ukrainian journalists during a question-and-answer session via WhatsApp on Saturday. “This primarily depends on President Trump. The question is what security guarantees President Trump is willing to provide to Ukraine.”
If Russia “turns even the Christmas and New Year period into a time of destroyed houses and burned apartments, destroyed power plants, then this sick activity can only be responded to with truly decisive steps,” he wrote on X earlier, setting off on the trip. “The US has that potential. Europe has that potential.”
In addition to meeting with Trump and Carney, Zelensky said he would speak remotely with European leaders to “exchange details of the documents that I will discuss with the President of the United States.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will take part in the online meeting, a European Commission spokesperson told NBC News.
European leaders have been largely sidelined from major negotiations between the United States, Ukraine and Russia.
They are focused on how to support Ukraine in the event of a peace agreement, while negotiations continue over security guarantees and funding. But longtime American allies in Europe have struggled to balance growing pressure from Washington and their reluctance to give in to tough Russian demands.
A Ukrainian official familiar with the planning for Sunday's meeting between Zelensky and Trump told NBC News that in addition to security guarantees for Ukraine, the Ukrainians are preparing to discuss economic prosperity and rebuilding a war-torn country.
There are also talks about holding a joint press conference with Trump and Zelensky, not necessarily to announce anything new, but to discuss the results of the meeting, the Ukrainian official said.
In a WhatsApp chat with Ukrainian journalists on Friday, Zelensky said: “The 20-point plan we are working on is 90% ready,” and negotiating teams in Ukraine and the United States have made “significant progress.”
“Our task is to make sure everything is 100% ready,” he added. “With each such meeting and each such conversation, we must bring the desired result closer.”
Trump has made high-level diplomatic efforts to end the war, but his efforts have been met by vastly different positions and demands from Moscow and Kyiv, while Russia remains relentless in its offensive.
Heavy Russian shelling and explosions took place in and around Kyiv early Saturday morning, leaving at least two people dead and 20 others injured, Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klimenko said. He added that more than 10 residential buildings were damaged in the city.
The strikes led to the temporary closure of two airports in southeastern Poland after the Polish Air Force scrambled fighter jets, the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency reported on X.
Zelensky said on Saturday that 500 Russian drones and 40 missiles had struck the country.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched a full-scale invasion of Russia's much smaller neighbor in February 2022, did not abandon maximalist demands this would block Ukraine from integrating with the West and limit its ability to defend itself. Until Tuesday, Zelensky had maintained that he would not be willing to withdraw troops from the country's eastern industrial heartland, much of which is occupied by Russian troops, as part of a plan to end the war.
The Ukrainian leader has since given details of the updated peace plan offering Russia a potential withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the east and the creation of a demilitarized zone in their place.
Trump told Politico On Friday he said he expected a “good” meeting with the Ukrainian leader, although he did not support Zelensky’s plan.
Zelensky “has nothing until I approve it,” he said. – So let's see what he has.
