‘90 percent agreed’ Trump and Zelensky tout ‘progress’ at Florida meeting but make no major breakthroughs
U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday for the two leaders’ fourth meeting since Trump returned to office.
Though both presidents described the meeting as “great,” it didn’t yield any major breakthroughs in finalizing a deal to end Russia’s war against Ukraine. Both leaders acknowledged that the issue of territory remains a sticking point, with Ukraine pushing for freezing the entire front line and Russia insisting on being given full control of all of Ukraine’s Donbas region, including unoccupied parts.
“I think the land you’re talking about, some of that land has been taken,” Trump told reporters in response to a question about the territory negotiations. “Some of that land is maybe up for grabs, but it may be taken over the next period of a number of months, and are you better off making a deal now — look, let me tell you, [Ukrainian soldiers] have been very brave. They fought very hard, and continue to fight very hard and do tremendous damage.”
Trump spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin for more than an hour before the meeting with Zelensky and said he planned to speak with him again afterwards.
According to Zelensky, a 20-point peace plan is “90 percent agreed” upon by Ukraine and the U.S., while the U.S.–Ukraine security guarantees it outlines are “100 percent agreed.” He continued:
The U.S.-Europe-Ukraine security guarantees [are] almost agreed. Military dimension, 100 percent agreed. Prosperity plan being finalized, and we also discussed the sequencing of the following actions. And we agree that security guarantees is the key milestone in achieving lasting peace, and our teams will continue working on all aspects.
According to RBC-Ukraine, Zelensky told journalists that he asked Trump to consider providing U.S. security guarantees lasting 30–50 years. He said the U.S. president agreed to “think about it.”
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