President Donald Trump will host his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Sunday to attempt to shut out a peace settlement that may finish practically 4 years of struggle sparked by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia intensified its assaults on Ukraine’s capital and elsewhere within the days earlier than the assembly.
The two will meet at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s non-public membership in Palm Beach, Florida, the place the U.S. president is spending the vacations. Zelenskyy, who arrived in Miami within the morning, stated the 2 deliberate to debate safety and financial agreements of their early afternoon assembly. He stated he’ll elevate “territorial issues” as Moscow and Kyiv stay fiercely at odds over the destiny of the Donbas area in japanese Ukraine.
In in a single day developments, three guided aerial bombs launched by Russia struck non-public houses within the japanese metropolis of Sloviansk, in keeping with the top of the native navy administration, Vadym Lakh. Three folks had been injured and one man died, Lakh stated in a put up on the Telegram messenger app.
The strike got here the day after Russia attacked Ukraine’s capital with ballistic missiles and drones on Saturday, killing no less than one particular person and wounding 27, a day earlier than deliberate talks between the leaders of Ukraine and the United States, Ukrainian authorities stated. Explosions boomed throughout Kyiv because the assault started within the early morning and continued for hours.
“Ukraine is willing to do whatever it takes to stop this war,” Zelenskyy posted Saturday on X. “We need to be strong at the negotiating table.”
In response to the assaults, he wrote: “We need peace, and Russia demonstrates a want to proceed the struggle. If the entire world — Europe and America — is on our aspect, collectively we are going to cease” Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Saturday, Zelenskyy said the key to peace is “pressure on Russia and sufficient, strong support for Ukraine.” To that end, Carney announced more economic assistance from his government to help Ukraine rebuild.
Denouncing the “barbarism” of Russia’s latest attacks on Kyiv, Carney credited both Zelenskyy and Trump with creating the conditions for a “just and lasting peace” at a crucial moment.
Trump and Zelenskyy sitting down face-to-face also underscored the apparent progress made by Trump’s top negotiators in recent weeks as the sides traded draft peace plans and continued to shape a proposal to end the fighting. Zelenskyy told reporters Friday that the 20-point draft proposal negotiators have discussed is “about 90% ready” — echoing a figure, and the optimism, that U.S. officials conveyed when Trump’s chief negotiators met with Zelenskyy in Berlin earlier this month.
During the recent talks, the U.S. agreed to offer certain security guarantees to Ukraine similar to those offered to other members of NATO. The proposal came as Zelenskyy said he was prepared to drop his country’s bid to join the security alliance if Ukraine received NATO-like protection that would be designed to safeguard it against future Russian attacks.
‘Intensive’ weeks ahead
Zelenskyy also spoke on Christmas Day with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. The Ukrainian leader said in a post on X that they discussed “certain substantive details” and cautioned in a subsequent put up that “there’s nonetheless work to be achieved on delicate points” and “the weeks ahead may also be intensive.”
The U.S. president has been working to finish the struggle in Ukraine for a lot of his first yr again in workplace, exhibiting irritation with each Zelenskyy and Putin whereas publicly acknowledging the issue of ending the battle. Long gone are the times when, as a candidate in 2024, he boasted that he may resolve the preventing in a day.
After internet hosting Zelenskyy on the White House in October, Trump demanded that each Russia and Ukraine halt preventing and “stop at the battle line,” implying that Moscow ought to have the ability to hold the territory it has seized from Ukraine.
Zelenskyy stated final week that he could be keen to withdraw troops from Ukraine’s japanese industrial heartland as a part of a plan to finish the struggle, if Russia additionally pulls again and the realm turns into a demilitarized zone monitored by worldwide forces.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov instructed reporters Friday that the Kremlin had already been in touch with U.S.
“It was agreed upon to continue the dialogue,” he stated.
Putin desires Russian positive factors stored, and extra
Putin has publicly stated he desires all of the areas in 4 key areas which were captured by his forces, in addition to the Crimean Peninsula, illegally annexed in 2014, to be acknowledged as Russian territory. He additionally has insisted that Ukraine withdraw from some areas in japanese Ukraine that Moscow’s forces haven’t captured. Kyiv has publicly rejected all these calls for.
The Kremlin additionally desires Ukraine to desert its bid to hitch NATO. It warned that it wouldn’t settle for the deployment of any troops from members of the navy alliance and would view them as a “legitimate target.”
Putin additionally has stated Ukraine should restrict the scale of its military and provides official standing to the Russian language, calls for he has constructed from the outset of the battle.
Putin’s international affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, instructed the enterprise each day Kommersant this month that Russian police and nationwide guard would keep in components of Donetsk -– one of many two main areas, together with Luhansk, that make up the Donbas area — even when they grow to be a demilitarized zone below a potential peace plan.
Ushakov cautioned that attempting to succeed in a compromise may take a very long time. He stated U.S. proposals that took into consideration Russian calls for had been “worsened” by alterations proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.
Trump has been considerably receptive to Putin’s calls for, making the case that the Russian president might be persuaded to finish the struggle if Kyiv agrees to cede Ukrainian land within the Donbas area and if Western powers supply financial incentives to carry Russia again into the worldwide financial system.
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Kim reported from Washington and Morton from London. Associated Press writers Illia Novikov in Kyiv and Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ukraine-donald-trump-russia-vladimir-putin-kyiv-b2891193.html