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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday he would meet with the US president Donald Trump in Florida this weekend.
Zelensky told reporters that the two leaders would discuss security guarantees for Ukraine during Sunday’s discussions, and that the 20-point plan under discussion “is about 90 percent ready.”
An “economic deal” will also be discussed, Zelensky said, but added that he could not confirm “whether anything will be finalized by the end.”
The Ukrainian side will also raise “territorial issues,” he said.
Moscow insisted that Ukraine give up the remaining territory it still holds in Donbass – an ultimatum that Ukraine rejected. Russia has captured most of Luhansk and around 70% of Donetsk – the two regions that make up Donbass.
Zelensky said Ukraine “would like the Europeans to be involved,” but he doubted that would be possible in the short term.
“We undoubtedly need to find a format in the near future in which not only Ukraine and the United States will be present, but Europe will also be represented,” he said.
The announced meeting is the latest development in a sweeping U.S.-led diplomatic campaign to end the nearly four-year-old war between Russia and Ukraine, but the efforts have been met with sharply conflicting demands from Moscow and Kiev.
Zelensky’s comments came after he said Thursday he had a “good conversation” with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Friday that the Kremlin was already in contact with U.S. representatives since Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev recently met with U.S. envoys in Florida.
“It was agreed to continue the dialogue,” he said.
Trump is engaged in a diplomatic move aimed at ending the all-out war in Russia, which began on February 24, 2022, but his efforts have encountered sharply conflicting demands from Moscow and kyiv.
Zelensky said Tuesday he would be ready to withdraw his troops from Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland. as part of a plan to end the war, if Russia also withdraws and the area becomes a demilitarized zone monitored by international forces.
Although Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday that there had been “slow but steady progress” in peace talks, Russia has given no indication that it would agree to any type of withdrawal from land it has seized.
On the ground, two people were killed and six others injured Friday when a guided aerial bomb hit a busy road and set cars on fire in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram.
One person was killed and three others injured when a guided aerial bomb hit a house in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, while six people were injured in a missile strike on the city of Uman, local officials said Friday.
Russian drone attacks on the city of Mykolaiv and its suburbs overnight on Friday left part of the city without power. Energy and port infrastructure was damaged by drones in the Black Sea city of Odessa.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said it struck a major Russian oil refinery on Thursday using UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles.
Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces had struck the Novoshakhtinsk refinery in Russia’s Rostov region.
“Several explosions were recorded. The target was hit,” he wrote on Telegram.
Rostov regional governor Yuri Slyusar said a firefighter was injured while putting out the blaze.
Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries aim to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to continue its large-scale invasion.
Russia wants to cripple Ukraine’s power grid, seeking to deprive civilians of access to heat, electricity and running water, in what Ukrainian officials say is an attempt to “weaponize winter.”
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