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Volodymyr Zelensky will meet the US President donald trump He was at his home in Florida on Sunday for crucial talks amid growing optimism that a peace deal in Kiev is close to completion.
The Ukrainian president announced on Friday that he would meet with Mr Trump Mar-a-Lago Resort Discussing important obstacles including territorial disputes and security guarantees.
“This meeting is specifically aimed at finalizing everything as much as possible,” Mr Zelensky said on Friday, adding that “a lot can be decided before the New Year”.
“As far as sensitive issues are concerned: we will discuss both Donbass and the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. We will of course discuss other issues as well,” he told reporters in a WhatsApp chat.
Mr Zelensky said his 20-point peace plan was “90 percent ready”, adding that he hoped Mr Trump could sign it before the New Year. European leaders can join the talks online, he said.
Moscow has talked to Washington about Ukrainian proposals for a peace deal, the Kremlin said, after Vladimir Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev brought back copies of the proposals from Miami last week.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said details of the proposals had been analyzed, and “contacts took place” between Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, and US officials.
Russia has made clear its intention to control the entire Donbass, including Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions. However, during the latest US-led efforts to bring Moscow and Kiev closer to an agreement, Mr Zelensky has made clear that Ukraine will not give up the land it currently controls.
According to Russian newspaper KommersantPutin told some of Russia’s top businessmen that he might be willing to trade some territory in Ukraine held by Russian forces, but he wanted all of Donbass.
Mr Peskov did not elaborate when asked about the report on Friday, saying he did not want to comment on the latest proposals because Russia believed making public comment could undermine the talks.
The US is desperately trying to find a compromise and is torn between supporting Kiev and echoing Moscow’s demands. Washington recently proposed a free economic zone if Ukraine left the Donbass region, but it is unclear how that zone would actually function.
Mr Zelensky said the purpose of his meeting with Mr Trump was to “refine things” and discuss a possible agreement on Ukraine’s economy, but an agreement on territory should be decided by the Ukrainian people in a referendum.
Although he was not ready to say whether any agreements would be signed during the visit, Mr Zelensky said he was open to the possibility, as it was “almost ready”. He said he planned to raise the issue of increasing pressure on Russia during the meeting with Mr Trump.
Having been increasingly frustrated by the slow pace of progress in the talks, Mr Trump had previously suggested he would meet with Mr Zelensky if he felt there was a chance of a major diplomatic breakthrough.
But officials in Kiev will be wary of past failures to strike a deal in tight deadlines. A White House meeting in February at which the pair were to sign a “mineral deal” resulted in a confrontation between Mr Zelensky and Mr Trump, who accused the Ukrainian leader of being “ungrateful” in an extraordinary televised press conference in the Oval Office. The deal was never signed.
Kiev is seeking stronger security guarantees that would prevent Russia from re-aggressing, but it is not clear what precise form these would take.
As talks continued, Russia continued its attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in drone and missile attacks overnight, including an attack on the southern city of Odessa, home to Ukraine’s sea ports.
Two people were killed in the attack on Friday in the northeastern city of Kharkiv.