Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday as talks continued to end Russia’s all-out war.
Zelenskyy said he wanted to focus on a separate proposal for a U.S.-brokered peace plan and U.S. security guarantees. But a senior Russian official said the plan was “radically different” from the plan Russia was negotiating with the United States.
The Kremlin did not comment on Zelenskyy’s proposal to withdraw troops from Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region if Russia also withdraws.
In the capital Kiev, new Russian airstrikes wounded at least five people overnight, the mayor said. Another person was injured in the Kyiv region.
Kiev Major Vitaliy Klitschko said Ukrainian air defense forces were repelling the attack and witnesses said explosions had occurred in the city.
Russian attacks continued on Saturday morning, and Ukraine’s air force warned that drone and missile threats extended to the entire country.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Moscow currently controls about 75% of the Donetsk region and about 99% of the neighboring Luhansk region. The region is collectively known as Donbas.
Ukraine has sought to secure guarantees from the United States as part of a peace deal, and Zelensky has suggested that demilitarized “free economic zones” are a potential option for the Donbas region that Russia has not occupied by force.
On Friday, Prime Minister Zelenskyy told reporters that the 20-point plan was 90% complete. “Our job is to make sure everything is 100% ready.”
He wrote on social media: “We are not losing a single day. We have agreed to hold a meeting at the highest level with President Trump in the near future. A lot can be decided before the new year.”
But in an interview with Politico published Friday, Trump said the Ukrainians “don’t have anything until I approve it.”
“I think it will work out with him. I think it will work out with (Vladimir) Putin,” Trump said.
He also said he expected to speak with the Russian president “soon.”
President Trump also told Politico that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit him in the coming days.
Senior Putin aides held additional talks by phone with U.S. officials last weekend after Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev returned from talks in Florida.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was positive about the latest developments but accused Ukraine of trying to “torpedo” talks over American plans.
“I think December 25, 2025, will be remembered by all of us as a milestone where we are truly closer to a solution. But whether we can make the final push and reach an agreement will depend on our efforts and the political will of the other side,” he said in an interview with Russian state television on Friday.
Shortly after details emerged of President Zelensky’s impending visit to Florida, the mayor of Kharkiv, the second-largest city in northeastern Ukraine, said two people were killed and several wounded in Russian airstrikes.
Zelensky has met with Trump several times this year since their first White House meeting in February devolved into hostile shouting. The most recent meeting, held at the White House last October, was much friendlier.
Confirmation of the planned high-level meeting came after the Ukrainian leader said he had an hour-long phone call on Christmas Day with Trump’s chief negotiator, Special Envoy Steve Wittkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
He said the recent negotiations had generated “new ideas” on how to end the war, which he described as “really good talks.”
The White House has proposed establishing a de facto demilitarized zone in eastern Ukraine where both sides would agree not to deploy troops. This is a compromise that does not resolve the intractable issue of legal ownership of the disputed territory.
Prime Minister Zelensky said Wednesday that if Ukraine retreats up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) from its eastern front to create an economic zone, Russia would have to do the same in the Russian-held part of the Donbas industrial heartland.
Ukraine secured a number of changes to the initial 28-point draft plan formulated by Witkoff but widely seen as favorable to Russia.
Zelenskyy told reporters on Friday that the weekend talks in Florida would focus on several documents, including U.S. security guarantees and a separate economic agreement.
However, Zelensky repeatedly said that the territorial issue, along with the future of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, has proven to be the most difficult issue to resolve.
The White House has proposed that Ukraine and Russia split energy produced by Europe’s largest power plant. Currently, the Russian military is controlling it.
Russia is unlikely to agree to many aspects of the updated U.S. plan, especially the territorial proposals. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused a “group of countries, mainly from Western Europe,” of trying to derail diplomatic progress made so far.
Putin has repeatedly warned that Ukrainian forces must withdraw from all of Donbas or Russia will occupy them, and has rejected any compromise on how to end the war.
Zelensky outlined the latest version of the plan this week, the first since the original 28-point draft was leaked in November.
The latest proposal commits the United States and Europe to provide security guarantees under Article 5 of NATO and provide military support to allies if Russia invades again.
The agreement will keep Ukraine’s military personnel at 800,000, a level the Kremlin has requested to be reduced.
