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U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were edging closer to an agreement to end the war in Ukraine, while acknowledging that the future of the disputed Donbas region remains the most difficult obstacle.
Speaking after talks at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, the US president said negotiations were progressing and could reach a decisive stage soon. “It’s unresolved, but it’s getting a lot closer. That’s a very tough issue,” Trump said, referring to Donbas.
Reuters reported on Monday that the two leaders spoke at a joint news conference following their meeting, with both indicating progress on two of the most contentious elements of the negotiations: security guarantees for Ukraine and territorial arrangements in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, which Russia has sought to seize.
While neither leader offered a timeline for a final agreement, Trump said it would become clear “in a few weeks” whether the peace effort would succeed, adding that several “thorny issues” linked to territory still needed to be resolved.
Zelenskiy said an agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine had already been reached, describing it as “the key milestone in achieving a lasting peace.” Trump struck a more cautious note, saying negotiators were about 95% of the way there and that European countries were expected to “take over a big part” of providing those guarantees, with support from the United States.
French President Emmanuel Macron later said progress had been made on security guarantees, adding in a post on X that countries in the so-called “Coalition of the Willing” would meet in Paris in early January to finalise their “concrete contributions”.
The most sensitive issue remains Donbas, where Russia is demanding full Ukrainian withdrawal. Zelenskiy has previously said he hopes to soften a US proposal that would see Ukrainian forces leave the region entirely, while Kyiv prefers freezing the conflict along current battle lines. Moscow insists on control over all of Donbas.
Trump confirmed that discussions were “moving in the right direction”, noting that Washington had proposed a free economic zone should Ukraine withdraw from the area, although details of how such a zone would function remain unclear.
Zelenskiy said any peace agreement would require approval from Ukraine’s parliament or a national referendum. Trump said he would be willing to address parliament directly if that would help secure the deal.
The talks followed a lengthy phone call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin shortly before Zelenskiy arrived in Florida. Trump described the call as “productive”, while Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov called it “friendly”.
Ushakov said Putin told Trump that a 60-day ceasefire proposed by the European Union and Ukraine would only prolong the conflict, and that Kyiv needed to decide on the future of Donbas “without further delay”.
Trump said he and Putin spoke for more than two hours and claimed the Russian leader had pledged to help rebuild Ukraine, including by supplying cheap energy. “Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed,” Trump said. “It sounds a little strange.”
As Trump praised Putin, Zelenskiy was seen tilting his head and smiling. Trump later said he planned to call Putin again following his meeting with the Ukrainian leader.
The Kremlin welcomed Trump’s diplomatic efforts. “The whole world appreciates President Trump and his team’s peace efforts,” said Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s special envoy, in a post on X early on Monday.
The fate of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was also discussed. US negotiators have proposed shared control of the facility, where power line repairs have begun following another local ceasefire brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Trump said progress had been made on determining the plant’s future and that it could “start up almost immediately”, adding that it was “a big step” that Russia had not bombed the site.
Russia currently controls Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, and has seized about 12% of Ukrainian territory since its full-scale invasion nearly four years ago. According to Russian estimates, this includes around 90% of Donbas, 75% of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and parts of several other regions.
The diplomatic push comes amid continued fighting. A day before Zelenskiy arrived in Florida, Russian forces launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, disrupting power and heating supplies. Zelenskiy said the attacks reflected Russia’s response to US-brokered peace efforts, though Trump said on Sunday that he believed both Putin and Zelenskiy were serious about ending the war.
Following the weekend attacks, Putin said Moscow would continue its military campaign unless Kyiv sought a rapid peace, as Russian forces continued advancing on the battlefield.
European leaders joined part of Sunday’s discussions by phone. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X that “Europe is ready to keep working with Ukraine and our US partners,” stressing that strong security guarantees would be of “paramount” importance.
A spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said European leaders had “underlined the importance of robust security guarantees and reaffirmed the urgency of ending this barbaric war as soon as possible.” - December 29, 2025