Zelensky says he will meet Trump on Sunday for talks on Ukraine security
Mr Zelensky earlier said he would be willing to withdraw troops from the eastern industrial heartland if the area becomes a demilitarised zone.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that he will meet US President Donald Trump in Florida over the weekend.
Mr Zelensky told journalists that the two leaders will discuss security guarantees for Ukraine during Sunday’s talks, and that the 20-point plan under discussion “is about 90% ready”.
An “economic agreement” also will be discussed, he said, but he was unable to confirm “whether anything will be finalised by the end”.
The Ukrainian side will also raise “territorial issues”, he said.
Mr Zelensky said Ukraine “would like the Europeans to be involved”, but doubted whether it would be possible at short notice.
“We must, without doubt, find some format in the near future in which not only Ukraine and the US are present, but Europe is represented as well,” he said.
The announced meeting is the latest development in an extensive US-led diplomatic push to end the nearly four-year Russia-Ukraine war, but efforts have run into sharply conflicting demands by Moscow and Kyiv.
Mr Zelensky’s announcement came after he said on Thursday he had a “good conversation” with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday that the Kremlin had already been in contact with US representatives since Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev met US envoys in Florida over the weekend.
“It was agreed upon to continue the dialogue,” he said.
Mr Trump has unleashed an extensive diplomatic push to end the war, but his efforts have run into sharply conflicting demands by Moscow and Kyiv.
Mr Zelensky said on Tuesday he would be willing to withdraw troops from the country’s eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end the war, if Moscow also pulls back and the area becomes a demilitarised zone monitored by international forces.
Though Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that there had been “slow but steady progress” in the peace talks, Russia has given no indication that it will agree to any kind of withdrawal from land it has seized.
In fact, Moscow has insisted that Ukraine relinquish the remaining territory it still holds in the Donbas – an ultimatum that Ukraine has rejected. Russia has captured most of Luhansk and about 70% of Donetsk – the two areas that make up the Donbas.
On the ground, one person was killed and three others wounded when a guided aerial bomb hit a house in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. Six people were wounded in a missile strike on the city of Uman, local officials said on Friday.
Russian drone attacks on the city of Mykolaiv and its suburbs overnight into Friday also left part of the city without power. Energy and port infrastructure were damaged by drones in the city of Odesa on the Black Sea.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said it struck a major Russian oil refinery on Thursday using British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles.
Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces hit the Novoshakhtinsk refinery in Russia’s Rostov region. “Multiple explosions were recorded. The target was hit,” it wrote on Telegram.
Rostov regional governor Yuri Slyusar said a firefighter was wounded when extinguishing the fire.
Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries aim to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue its full-scale invasion.
Russia wants to cripple the Ukrainian power grid, seeking to deny civilians access to heat, light and running water in what Kyiv officials say is an attempt to “weaponise winter”.
