Zelenskyy says he will meet Trump again in Florida this weekend

LAST UPDATE | 7 hrs ago

UKRAINE PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR Zelenskyy has said he will meet US President Donald Trump in Florida over the weekend.

Zelenskyy told journalists that the two leaders will discuss security guarantees for Ukraine during Sunday’s talks, and that the 20-point plan under discussion “is about 90% ready”.

An “economic agreement” also will be discussed, he said, but he was unable to confirm “whether anything will be finalised by the end”.

The Ukrainian side will also raise “territorial issues”, he said.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine “would like the Europeans to be involved”, but doubted whether it would be possible at short notice.

“We must, without doubt, find some format in the near future in which not only Ukraine and the US are present, but Europe is represented as well,” he said.

The announced meeting is the latest development in an extensive US-led diplomatic push to end the nearly four-year Russia-Ukraine war, but efforts have run into sharply conflicting demands by Moscow and Kyiv.

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Zelenskyy’s announcement came after he said on Christmas Day that he had a “good conversation” with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Trump has unleashed an extensive diplomatic push to end the war, but his efforts have run into sharply conflicting demands by Moscow and Kyiv.

Zelenskyy 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 pulls back and the area becomes a demilitarised zone monitored by international forces.

Though Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that there had been “slow but steady progress” in the peace talks, Russia has given no indication that it will agree to any kind of withdrawal from land it has seized.

In fact, Moscow has insisted that Ukraine relinquish the remaining territory it still holds in the Donbas – an ultimatum that Ukraine has rejected. Russia has captured most of Luhansk and about 70% of Donetsk – the two areas that make up the Donbas.

On the ground, Russian drone attacks on the city of Mykolaiv and its suburbs overnight into this morning left part of the city without power.

Meanwhile, Ukraine said it struck a major Russian oil refinery yesterday using British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles.

Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries aim to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue its full-scale invasion.

Russia wants to cripple the Ukrainian power grid, seeking to deny civilians access to heat, light and running water in what Kyiv officials say is an attempt to “weaponise winter”.