Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he planned to meet with President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday, a possible sign of progress in U.S.-backed talks to end the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine.
“We are not wasting a single day. We have agreed on a meeting at the highest level – with President Trump in the near future,” Zelensky wrote on X on Friday.
In a WhatsApp conversation with Ukrainian journalists on Friday, Zelensky confirmed that the meeting would take place on Sunday. He added that it was unclear “whether territorial issues will be discussed.”
He said he hoped the two leaders would discuss security guarantees for Ukraine and the proposed U.S.-backed peace deal.
“The 20-point plan we are working on is 90 percent ready,” he said. “Our task is to make sure everything is 100% ready. It’s not easy, and no one says 100% will happen immediately. But nevertheless, with each of these meetings and each of these conversations, we must get closer to the desired result.”
A Ukrainian official familiar with the planning for Sunday’s meeting told NBC News that in addition to security guarantees for Ukraine, Ukrainians were preparing to discuss economic prosperity and reconstruction of the war-torn country.
There is also talk of holding a joint news conference with Trump and Zelensky, not necessarily to announce anything new, but to discuss the results of the meeting, the Ukrainian official said.
U.S. officials did not respond to requests for confirmation of the meeting between the two leaders on Sunday, and the White House made no public comment. But Trump told Politico on Friday that Zelensky “has nothing until I approve him. So we’ll see what he has.”
Trump said in November that he would only meet with Zelensky or Russian President Vladimir Putin if a deal was reached or in its “final stages.”
The announcement comes a day after Zelensky said he had a “good conversation” with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, both at the heart of U.S.-led efforts to resolve the conflict.
Trump has made high-level diplomatic efforts to end the war, but his efforts have encountered very different positions and demands from Moscow and kyiv.
Putin, who launched a full-scale invasion of Russia’s much smaller neighbor in February 2022, has not backed away from maximalist demands that would prevent Ukraine from integrating with the West and limit its ability to defend itself.
Until Tuesday, Zelensky had said he would not be willing to withdraw his troops from the country’s eastern industrial heartland, much of which is occupied by Russian forces, as part of a plan to end the war.
At a news conference with Ukrainian journalists earlier this week, Zelensky said he would be willing to negotiate the ceding of part of the territory if Moscow was prepared to “consequently withdraw its troops” from what will become a demilitarized zone monitored by international forces.
On Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said there had been “slow but steady progress” in peace talks, although Russia gave no indication that it would agree to any type of withdrawal from land it has seized.
In a closed-door meeting with senior Russian businessmen on Wednesday, Putin said he wanted the entire Donbass region, but might be willing to trade some of the territory controlled by Russian forces in Ukraine, according to Russian newspaper Kommersant.
Previously, Moscow had 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 areas that make up Donbass.
On the ground, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said Russian drone attacks damaged three foreign-flagged ships in ports in Ukraine’s Odessa and Mykolaiv regions, including a ship flying the flag of NATO member country Slovakia.
“There are partial disruptions in the power supply,” Kuleba said in a statement on Telegram on Friday.
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 kyiv officials say is an attempt to “weaponize winter.”
