Representatives from Zelenskyy’s public relations and media team have confirmed to various news outlets the Ukraine President will be meeting with President Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago on Sunday to discuss the latest five segment draft document organized by negotiators.
The meeting between Zelenskyy and President Trump comes after several days of negotiations between the Ukrainian delegation, Trump Emissaries Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner over the Christmas holiday.
(VIA UPI) Former Defense Minister “Rustem Umerov reported on his latest contacts with the American side,” Zelensky wrote. “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 York.”
CNN reported that Zelensky told reporters he couldn’t say whether he’d leave the meeting with a deal in place. Negotiators will “finalize as much as we can,” he said.
Unnamed Ukrainian officials confirmed to Axios the meeting would take place Sunday at Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago estate.
The meeting will come one week after Russian negotiators and U.S. officials Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met in Miami to hammer out details on a peace plan. Zelensky on Wednesday unveiled a 20-point peace plan agreed upon during that meeting, which would provide strong NATO-style security concessions for Ukraine in exchange for land concessions to Russia. (more)
According to Politico: – […] “The 20-point plan that we worked on is 90 percent ready. Our task, to make sure that everything is 100 percent ready. It is not easy and no one says that it will be 100 percent right away, but nevertheles we must bring the desired result closer with each such meeting, each such conversation,” Zelenskyy told journalists.
He added that the meeting will focus on security guarantees, management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and territorial control of Donbas, the eastern territories claimed by Moscow.
“First of all, we are working on several documents every day, there are five of them now. We want to talk about a few nuances on security guarantees … In my opinion, I see now that the agreement between us and the United States is almost ready,” Zelenskyy said, adding that he is ready to sign a bilateral agreement depending on how the meeting goes.
The 20-point plan will be a four-party agreement between Ukraine, U.S., Russia and Europe, he added. European leaders might join the meeting online, Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy’s announcement came after Thursday talks with U.S. lead negotiator Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, which the Ukrainian president called a “good conversation” and said yielded “timing on how to bring a real peace closer.
Contacts between Ukrainian and U.S. officials have intensified as prospects for a possible peace deal grow in the war-torn country, which has been resisting Russian aggression for nearly four years.
The updated 20-point draft peace plan that Zelenskyy unveiled on Wednesday includes the possibility of creating a special demilitarized economic zone in some areas of Donbas. (read more)
I would not hold out too much hope on this specific set of proposals from Zelenskyy because it still calls for the frontlines in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions to form the de facto border, while Russia will pull out of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Sumy, and Kharkiv regions.
Despite the U.S. intelligence community, NATO forces and mercenaries assisting on the ground in Ukraine and generating successful counterattacks against Russian positions, there is no indication that Russia is willing to cede ground already under their control.