After meeting Zelensky… Trump hints at imminent signing of a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that a deal to end the war in Ukraine was imminent, but there was no sign of a breakthrough on the disputed territory issue after new talks with the Ukrainian and Russian presidents.

Trump, who vowed to end the conflict on the first day of his presidency, which began nearly a year ago, said it would become clear within weeks whether it was possible to end the war, which has killed tens of thousands of people since February 2022.

As part of an intensified diplomatic effort ahead of the new year, Trump received Volodymyr Zelensky in Florida, where the two met with their top aides for a luncheon, a day after Russia launched major new attacks on residential areas in the capital, Kyiv.

As when Zelensky last met Trump in October, Russian President Vladimir Putin also spoke by phone shortly before with the US president, who stressed that Moscow was serious about peace despite the latest offensive.

After their talks, Zelensky and Trump spoke jointly by phone with European leaders who expressed particular concern about making any decisions that might embolden Russia.

Zelensky said after meeting with his US counterpart Donald Trump that they had agreed on 90% of the peace plan announced by the White House to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

This came during a joint press conference on Sunday, following his meeting with Trump in Florida.

Zelensky expressed satisfaction with the progress made between the US and Ukrainian sides.

“We’ve a 20-point peace plan, 90% of which have been agreed,” he added.

For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Monday, a meeting of Kyiv allies in Paris in early January to discuss security guarantees to Ukraine as part of a peace deal with Russia.

Zelensky announced that he might return with European leaders for talks with Trump in Washington in January.

Despite his stated optimism, Trump offered few details about the progress he had made in the talks, even deviating from the topic and complaining about his predecessor Joe Biden, who has spent billions of dollars to defend Ukraine, and his friendly relationship with Putin.

Trump acknowledged the continuing dispute between Kyiv and Moscow over the disputed territories.

The current plan, revised after weeks of intensive US-Ukraine negotiations, calls for a halt to the war on the current frontlines in the eastern Donbas region, and the establishment of a demilitarized zone, while Russia is demanding territorial concessions.

Asked about the Donbas region, he said: “There is no solution, but it is getting closer and closer… It’s a very thorny issue, but I think it will be resolved”.

Trump offered to address Ukraine’s parliament to promote the plan, in a suggestion that Zelensky was quick to welcome.

Zelensky has shown openness to the revised US plan, which represents Kyiv’s most explicit acknowledgment yet of possible territorial concessions, though that would require a referendum to be voted on by Ukrainians.

Russia, by contrast, has shown no signs of conceding, seeing hope for the gradual gains it has been making for four years against Ukrainian defenses.

In a statement on the talks between Putin and Trump, the Kremlin called on Kyiv to make a courageous decision and immediately withdraw troops from Donbas, describing European leaders as an obstacle to peace.

Yuri Ushakov, a diplomatic adviser to the Kremlin, said that “Russia and the United States agree on the same view, which is that the Ukrainian and European proposal for a temporary ceasefire… It will only prolong the conflict and lead to the resumption of hostilities”.

Trump’s advisers have previously floated the idea of providing Ukraine with NATO-like security guarantees, which in theory means that NATO members would respond militarily if Russia launched another attack.

Zelensky said Trump’s peace plan was 90% approved and that security guarantees between the United States and Ukraine have been approved 100%.

He added that the two sides are still finalizing the prosperity plan for Ukraine as well as the sequence of various actions.

On the eve of the meeting in Florida, Moscow attacked Kyiv and the surrounding area with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles, killing two people and knocking out power to more than a million homes.

“If the authorities in Kyiv don’t want to settle this issue peacefully, we will solve all the problems facing us by military means,” Putin said on Saturday.