Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he plans to meet with President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday, a potential sign of progress in US-backed talks to end the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine.
“We are not losing a single day. We have agreed on a meeting at the highest level with President Trump in the near future,” Zelensky wrote on Friday.
In a WhatsApp chat with Ukrainian journalists later Friday, Zelensky confirmed the meeting would take place on Sunday. He said it was unclear whether “regional issues will be discussed or not.”
US officials did not respond to requests for confirmation that the presidents would meet on Sunday. Trump said in November That he would meet with Zelensky or Putin only when an agreement is reached or in its “final stages.”
The announcement came a day after Zelensky said he had had a “good conversation” with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who are at the center of US-led efforts to resolve the conflict.
Trump has made a high-level diplomatic effort to end the war, but his efforts have failed given Moscow and Kiev’s widely differing positions and demands.
Putin, who launched a full-scale invasion of Russia’s much smaller neighbor in February 2022, has not backed down from extremist demands that would prevent Ukraine from integrating with the West and limit its ability to defend itself.
By Tuesday, Zelensky had said he would not be willing to withdraw troops from the country’s eastern industrial heartland, much of which is occupied by Russian forces, as part of a plan to end the war.
At a press conference with Ukrainian journalists earlier this week, Zelensky said he would be willing to negotiate to hand over some territory if Moscow is willing to “withdraw its troops accordingly”, which would become a demilitarized zone monitored by international forces.
On Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said there had been “slow but steady progress” in peace talks, although Russia has given no indication that it will agree to any return from seized lands.
During a closed meeting with top Russian businessmen on Wednesday, Putin said he wanted the entire Donbass region, but might also be willing to swap some territory in Ukraine controlled by Russian forces, according to Russian newspaper Kommersant.
Earlier, Moscow had insisted that Ukraine give up the remaining territory it still holds in Donbass – an ultimatum that Ukraine has rejected. Russia has captured most of Luhansk and about 70% of Donetsk – the two regions that make up Donbass.
On the ground, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said Russian drone strikes damaged three foreign-flagged ships in ports in Ukraine’s Odessa and Mykolaiv regions, including a ship under the flag of Slovakia, a NATO member state.
“There are partial interruptions in electricity supply,” Kuleba said in a statement on Telegram on Friday.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said it attacked a major Russian oil refinery on Thursday using British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles.
Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces attacked the Novoshakhtinsk refinery in Russia’s Rostov region. “Several explosions recorded. Target attacked,” it read on Telegram.
Rostov regional governor Yuri Slyusar said one firefighter was injured while extinguishing the blaze.
Ukraine’s long-range drone attacks on Russian refineries are aimed at depriving Moscow of oil export revenues needed to pursue its full-scale invasion. Russia wants to paralyze the Ukrainian power grid, and deny citizens access to heat, light and running water, in what Kiev officials say is an attempt to “weaponize winter.”
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