Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky said progress had been made in ending the war in Ukraine during negotiations in Florida, but the US president admitted the territory issue remained “unresolved”.
While the U.S. and Ukrainian presidents described the negotiations as “tremendous,” Trump said “one or two very thorny issues” remained outstanding, including on the land issue.
Speaking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago, Zelensky said they had reached agreement on “90 percent” of the 20-point peace plan, while Trump said the security guarantee for Ukraine was “close to 95 percent.”
Zelensky later said the U.S. and Ukrainian teams would meet next week to continue discussions on issues aimed at ending Russia’s nearly four-year-old war in Ukraine.
“We had a substantive conversation on all issues and highly appreciate the progress made by the Ukrainian and American teams over the past weeks,” Zelensky said in a statement on the messaging app Telegram.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Moscow currently controls around 20% of Ukraine’s territory.
A proposal to turn Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region, which Russia largely controls, into a demilitarized zone remains “unresolved,” Trump said.
“Part of this land has been taken,” he told reporters after the meeting. “Some of this land may be up for grabs, but it could be seized over the next few months.”
Moscow currently controls about 75% of the Donetsk region and about 99% of the neighboring Luhansk region. The regions are collectively known as Donbass.
Russia wants Ukraine to withdraw from the small part of territory it still controls in Donbas, while kyiv has insisted the region could become a free economic zone monitored by Ukrainian forces.
The US president has repeatedly changed his own position on Ukraine’s lost territories, and in September he stunned observers by suggesting that Ukraine might be able to take them back. He then reversed his trajectory.
“[That] It’s a very difficult question,” he said. “A question that will be resolved.”
Security guarantees for Ukraine are “95 percent assured,” Trump said, without formally committing to logistical support or troop deployment to help protect Ukraine against future attacks.
Trump raised the possibility of trilateral negotiations between the United States, Russia and Ukraine, saying it could happen “at the right time.”
While the US president is keen to add the war between Ukraine and Russia to the list of conflicts he claims to have ended, he warned that stopping or abandoning negotiations that are going “very poorly” could mean a continuation of the war.
Earlier, Trump had a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Although the US president did not give many details about the phone call, he said he believed the Russian leader “wants Ukraine to succeed.”
At the same time, Trump acknowledged that Moscow had little interest in a ceasefire that would allow Ukraine to hold a referendum.
“I understand this position,” he added.
Russian foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said the call was made by Trump and that he and Putin discussed the latest proposals from the EU and Ukraine to end the war.
Ushakov, the former Russian ambassador to the United States, said Trump listened to the Kremlin’s assessment of the proposals and that both presidents left the call united in their belief that a temporary ceasefire proposed by the EU and Ukraine would prolong the conflict.
Zelensky suggested that Ukrainian officials could meet at the White House in January, potentially alongside European leaders, as the U.S. and Ukrainian delegations finalize plans for further negotiations.
In a phone call with European allies after the meeting, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen praised “good progress” in the Florida talks, while emphasizing the need for Ukraine to receive “ironclad security guarantees from day one.”
French President Emmanuel Macron also said kyiv’s allies would meet in Paris next month to discuss security guarantees.
“We will bring together the countries of the Coalition of the Willing in Paris at the beginning of January to finalize the concrete contributions of each one,” Macron said on X after speaking with Zelensky and Trump.
