BBC: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he will meet his US counterpart Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday, as talks continue on ending Russia’s full-scale war.
Zelensky said he expected the meeting to focus on a US-brokered peace plan, and separate proposals for US security guarantees. But a senior Russian official said the plan was “radically different” to the one it was negotiating with the US.
Moscow has spoken of “slow but steady progress” in talks but has not commented on Zelensky’s offer to withdraw troops from Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, if Russia pulls back too.
On Saturday night, blasts were heard in Kyiv, in what Ukrainian officials said was a new Russian aerial attack.
Kyiv Major Vitaliy Klitschko said Ukraine’s air defence forces were repelling the attack, urging residents of the Ukrainian capital to go shelters. It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Moscow currently controls about 75% of the Donetsk region, and some 99% of the neighbouring Luhansk. The regions are collectively known as Donbas.
Ukraine has sought to secure guarantees from the US as part of a peace deal, and Zelensky has suggested that a demilitarised “free economic zone” is a potential option for areas of Donbas that Russia has failed to take by force.
On Friday, Zelensky told reporters that the 20-point plan was 90% complete: “Our task is to make sure everything is 100% ready.”
He wrote on social media: “We are not losing a single day. We have agreed on a meeting at the highest level – with President Trump in the near future. A lot can be decided before the new year.”
