Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to meet President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday, according to new reports, after rounds of fresh peace negotiations hailed by Kyiv as "constructive."
Newsweek has reached out to the White House for comment via email.
Why It Matters
U.S.-pushed peace talks have moved at a glacial pace that has frustrated the Trump administration, although Ukraine publicly released an updated, 20-point peace plan currently under consideration earlier this week.
Zelensky told reporters via messages on Friday the 20-point plan was "90 percent ready," according to domestic media.
"Every meeting and every conversation brings us closer to the desired result," the Ukrainian leader said, according to the Kyiv Post.
What To Know
"A lot can be decided before the New Year," Zelensky said.
Zelensky has visited the White House three times this year, including during a trip to the U.S. in mid-November. The Ukrainian leader's now-infamous trip to the Oval Office in late February saw Zelensky berated by Trump and Vice President JD Vance in front of the world's cameras. The visit was a dip in already strained relations between Kyiv and the Trump administration, a hideous diplomatic moment Ukrainian officials have been keen to rectify.
Zelensky said on Thursday Ukrainian negotiators had spoken for close to an hour with Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The Ukrainian leader said the two teams had a "truly good conversation."
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday the Russian delegation had spoken with U.S. officials after Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund, who has emerged as a key negotiator, visited Miami for talks.
Dmitriev has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the talks in Florida, Peskov said, according to remarks reported by state media. Russian presidential aide Yuriy Ushakov spoke with U.S.officials after Dmitriev's trip, according to Russian state media.
Witkoff said earlier this week the U.S. had held productive talks with both Russia and Ukraine.
Zelensky on Tuesday told reporters that under revised peace proposal Kyiv could be willing to pull back its troops from part of eastern Ukraine it still controls and institute a demilitarized zone, if Russia also withdraws from parts of the east. Moscow has not indicated it is willing to meet this demand. Also on the table as an option is having international forces monitor what would effectively be a frozen conflict along the front lines as they stand.
Russia has claimed to have annexed the two eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk—collectively known as the Donbas—as well as the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of the country. Moscow seized the Crimean Peninsula to the south of the mainland in 2014. Russia has been unwilling to give up its claims to these five regions, whereas Kyiv has consistently vowed to reclaim the territories and says giving up land would be against its constitution.
Under the 20-point deal, Ukraine would receive "Article 5-like" security guarantees from the U.S., NATO and European signatories. Under NATO's Article 5, an attack on one member state is deemed an assault on all.
Ukraine had argued that its admission to NATO would be the only way to effectively ensure Russia did not restart its invasion effort. Moscow deems Kyiv's membership of the alliance as off the table.
It's not clear where negotiators will land on other key issues, such as who will control Europe's largest nuclear power plant. The site in Zaporizhzhia has long sat close to the front lines and has been under Russian control since March 2022.
What People Are Saying
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday: "Some documents, as I see it, are nearly ready, and some documents are fully prepared."
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