Zelensky to meet Trump in Florida as talks on Ukraine war intensify

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he will meet US President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday, as diplomatic efforts intensify to end Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine.

Zelensky said the talks would focus on a US-brokered peace plan and separate proposals related to American security guarantees for Ukraine. However, a senior Russian official said the plan under discussion differed “radically” from the one Russia has been negotiating with the United States.

The Kremlin has not commented on Zelensky’s suggestion that Ukraine could withdraw troops from parts of the eastern Donbas region if Russia also pulls back its forces.

The diplomatic developments come amid continued fighting. At least five people were injured in Kyiv overnight in a fresh wave of Russian air strikes, according to Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko, while another person was wounded in the surrounding Kyiv region. Klitschko said Ukrainian air defence systems were repelling the attacks, with residents reporting explosions across the capital.

Ukraine’s air force warned on Saturday morning that a drone and missile threat was in force across the entire country. Separately, authorities in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, said two people were killed and several others wounded in a Russian air strike shortly after news of Zelensky’s Florida visit emerged.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and currently controls around 75 per cent of Donetsk region and nearly 99 per cent of neighbouring Luhansk, together known as the Donbas.

Ukraine has been seeking firm security guarantees from the US as part of any peace settlement. Zelensky has floated the idea of a demilitarised “free economic zone” in parts of Donbas that Russia has failed to capture by force. He said on Friday that a 20-point plan was about 90 per cent complete, adding that the task now was to finalise it.

“We are not losing a single day. We have agreed on a meeting at the highest level – with President Trump in the near future,” Zelensky wrote on social media.

Trump, however, told Politico that Zelensky “doesn’t have anything until I approve it,” while expressing confidence that talks would go well both with Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump also said he expected to speak with Putin soon.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov described recent contacts with the US as positive but accused Ukraine of attempting to “torpedo” discussions on the American plan. He said 25 December 2025 could be remembered as a milestone in negotiations, though progress depended on political will on all sides.

Zelensky confirmed he had spoken for an hour on Christmas Day with Trump’s chief negotiators, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, describing the conversation as “really good” and saying it generated new ideas on ending the war.

According to Ukrainian officials, Washington has proposed establishing a demilitarised zone in eastern Ukraine, with both sides refraining from deploying troops, while deferring the issue of legal ownership of contested territory. Zelensky said Ukraine would consider pulling back up to 40 km from the front line if Russia did the same.

The latest proposals reportedly include US and European security guarantees modelled on Nato’s Article 5, as well as maintaining Ukraine’s armed forces at around 800,000 personnel—a demand Russia has opposed. The future of territory and control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, remain among the most contentious issues, with Russian troops currently occupying the facility.