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President Donald Trump on Sunday insisted\u00a0Ukraine and Russia\u00a0are \u201ccloser than ever before\u201d to a peace deal as he hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Florida resort, but he acknowledged that negotiations could still break down and leave the war dragging on for years.<\/p>\n
The president\u2019s statements came after the two leaders met for a discussion that took place after what Trump described as an \u201cexcellent,\u201d two-and-a-half-hour phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine launched the war four years ago. Trump insisted he believed Putin still wants peace, even as Russia launched\u00a0another round of attacks\u00a0on Ukraine while Zelenskyy flew to the United States for the latest round of negotiations.<\/p>\n
\u201cRussia wants to see Ukraine succeed,\u201d Trump said during a late afternoon news conference following a meeting with Zelenskyy, whom he repeatedly praised as \u201cbrave.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump and Zelenskyy both acknowledged thorny issues remain, including whether Russia can keep Ukrainian territory it controls. After their discussion they called a wide group of European leaders, including Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and the leaders of Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain and Poland.<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy thanked Trump for his work. \u201cUkraine is ready for peace,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Trump said he\u2019d follow the meeting with another call to Putin. Earlier Sunday, Putin\u2019s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said the Trump-Putin call was initiated by the U.S. side, lasted over an hour, and was \u201cfriendly, benevolent and businesslike.\u201d Ushakov said Trump and Putin agreed to speak again \u201cpromptly\u201d after Trump\u2019s meeting with Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n
But Ushakov added that a \u201cbold, responsible, political decision is needed from Kyiv\u201d on the fiercely contested Donbas region in eastern Ukraine and other matters in dispute for there to be a \u201ccomplete cessation\u201d of hostilities.<\/p>\n
In overnight developments, three guided aerial bombs launched by Russia struck private homes in the eastern city of Sloviansk, according to the head of the local military administration, Vadym Lakh. Three people were injured and one man died, Lakh said in a post on the Telegram messenger app.<\/p>\n
The strike came the day after Russia\u00a0attacked Ukraine\u2019s capital with ballistic missiles and drones\u00a0on Saturday, killing at least one person and wounding 27, Ukrainian authorities said. Explosions boomed across Kyiv as the attack began in the early morning and continued for hours.<\/p>\n
Trump said, however, that he still believes Putin is \u201cvery serious\u201d about ending the war.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe Ukraine has made some very strong attacks also,\u201d Trump told reporters as Zelenskyy stood by his side. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t say that negatively. I think, you probably have to. I don\u2019t say that negatively. But I think, he hasn\u2019t told me that, but there have been some explosions in various parts of Russia. It looks to me, like, I don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t think it came from the Congo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump noted that it was possible that the negotiations will fall apart. \u201cIn a few weeks, we will know one way or the other, I think. \u2026 But it could also go poorly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The face-to-face sit-down between Trump and Zelenskyy underscored the apparent progress made by Trump\u2019s top negotiators in recent weeks as the sides traded draft peace plans and continued to shape a proposal to end the fighting. Zelenskyy told reporters Friday that the 20-point draft proposal negotiators have discussed is \u201cabout 90% ready\u201d \u2014 echoing a figure, and the optimism, that U.S. officials conveyed when Trump\u2019s chief negotiators met with\u00a0Zelenskyy in Berlin\u00a0earlier this month.<\/p>\n
During the recent talks, the U.S. agreed to offer certain\u00a0security guarantees to Ukraine\u00a0similar to those offered to other members of NATO. The proposal came as Zelenskyy said he was prepared to drop his country\u2019s bid to join the security alliance if Ukraine received NATO-like protection that would be designed to safeguard it against future Russian attacks.<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy also spoke on Christmas Day with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump\u2019s son-in-law. The Ukrainian leader said they discussed \u201ccertain substantive details\u201d and cautioned \u201cthere is still work to be done on sensitive issues\u201d and \u201cthe weeks ahead may also be intensive.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. president has been\u00a0working to end the war\u00a0in Ukraine for much of his first year back in office, showing irritation with both Zelenskyy and Putin while publicly acknowledging the difficulty of ending the conflict. Long gone are the days when, as a candidate in 2024, he boasted that he could resolve the fighting in a day.<\/p>\n
After\u00a0hosting Zelenskyy at the White House in October, Trump demanded that both Russia and Ukraine halt fighting and \u201cstop at the battle line,\u201d implying that Moscow should be able to keep the territory it has seized from Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy said last week that he would be\u00a0willing to withdraw troopsfrom Ukraine\u2019s eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end the war, if Russia also pulls back and the area becomes a demilitarized zone monitored by international forces.<\/p>\n
Putin has publicly said he wants all the areas in four key regions that have been captured by his forces, as well as the Crimean Peninsula, illegally annexed in 2014, to be recognized as Russian territory. He also has insisted that Ukraine withdraw from some areas in eastern Ukraine that Moscow\u2019s forces haven\u2019t captured. Kyiv has publicly rejected all those demands.<\/p>\n
The Kremlin also wants Ukraine to abandon its bid to join NATO. It warned that it wouldn\u2019t accept the deployment of any troops from members of the military alliance and would view them as a \u201clegitimate target.\u201d<\/p>\n
Putin also has said Ukraine must limit the size of its army and give official status to the Russian language, demands he has made from the outset of the conflict.<\/p>\n
Ushakov told the business daily Kommersant this month that Russian police and national guard would stay in parts of Donetsk -\u2013 one of the two major areas, along with Luhansk, that make up the Donbas region \u2014 even if they become a demilitarized zone under a prospective peace plan.<\/p>\n
Ushakov cautioned that trying to reach a compromise could take a long time. He said U.S. proposals that took into account Russian demands had been \u201cworsened\u201d by alterations proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.<\/p>\n
Trump has been somewhat receptive to Putin\u2019s demands, making the case that the Russian president can be persuaded to end the war if Kyiv agrees to cede Ukrainian land in the Donbas region and if Western powers offer economic incentives to bring Russia back into the global economy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Trump #Ukraine #Russia #closer #peace #talking #Zelenskyy #Putin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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