Zelensky looks to close out Ukraine peace deal at Trump meet
Updated / Sunday, 28 Dec 2025 02:16
The meeting between the leaders will be the pair’s first in-person encounter since October
The meeting between the leaders will be the pair’s first in-person encounter since October
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will sit down with Donald Trump today and seek to secure the US president’s stamp of approval for a new proposal to end the nearly four-year conflict with Russia.
The 20-point plan, which emerged from weeks of intense US-Ukraine negotiations, lacks Russia’s approval, and the face-to-face in Florida comes in the wake of a massive Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv.
The meeting, hosted by Mr Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence, will be the pair’s first in-person encounter since October, when the US president refused to grant Mr Zelensky’s request for long-range Tomahawk missiles.
During a stopover in Canada, Mr Zelensky said he hoped the talks would be “very constructive” and said Russian leader Vladimir Putin had shown his hand with the latest assault on the Ukrainian capital.
“This attack is again Russia’s answer on our peace efforts. And this really showed that Putin doesn’t want peace,” he said.
Europeans vow support
While in Canada, Mr Zelensky held a conference call with European leaders who, according to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, pledged their full support for his peace efforts.
Russia has accused Ukraine and its European backers of trying to “torpedo” a previous US-brokered plan to stop the fighting.
EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa, who participated in the conference call, said the European Union’s backing for Ukraine would never falter and vowed to maintain pressure on the Kremlin to come to terms.
The US president has so far been non-committal on the new peace proposal.
Mr Zelensky “doesn’t have anything until I approve it,” the US president said in an interview with Politico on Friday.
“So we’ll see what he’s got.”
