Everything was ready this Sunday at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s private residence in Florida, his “winter White House”, to receive the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, when the Republican president introduced yet another last-minute twist. A few hours before the meeting, he announced in a message on Truth that he had spoken by telephone with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. Trump called it a “positive and very productive” call.
The meeting between Trump and Zelensky finally happened after 1:25 p.m. Both met briefly with the press at the gates of Mar-a-Lago. Crucially, Trump said, “I think we’re ready to make a deal.” It will be good for Ukraine. Good for everyone. ” He also said that “there will be a strong security agreement” and that “European nations are very involved.” Then, the two entered the large dining room of the presidential residence and sat around the table with their collaborators, against a backdrop of American and Ukrainian flags.
Zelensky presented the 20-point peace plan proposed by Washington a few weeks ago in Florida and fine-tuned the latest contacts between Ukrainian and American negotiators. And two issues stand out on the agenda: the fate of Donbass, a semi-occupied region in the east of the attacked country, the total transfer of which is requested by Trump to Russia, and control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, now in the hands of Moscow.
“There are many things to decide before the end of the year,” Zelensky said on Sunday, defining these days as among those of “the greatest diplomatic activity” of the last 12 months. “Whether decisions are made or not depends on our partners, those who help Ukraine and those who put pressure on Russia,” he added as a message to Trump.
The call with Putin lasted, according to Moscow, about 75 minutes, during which he tried to convince Trump to abandon the 20-point plan agreed with kyiv and return to the 27-point project, based on what the two leaders discussed in August in Alaska. That is to say, the project of a peace which would leave Ukraine disarmed and grant it territories that Moscow has not conquered.
In the context of the telephone conversation, it was even less clear, despite the wishes of the Ukrainian president, that great progress on the path to peace would emerge from Mar-a-Lago. The last time Trump spoke with Putin before meeting Zelensky, he left empty-handed in October from a visit to the White House from which he hoped to begin sending long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.
The slow but sure advances of Russian forces in recent weeks also indicate that Putin, despite the pressure of sanctions on an economy facing recession and the brutal number of casualties among his troops, is still not ready to accept a diplomatic solution to a war that is heading towards its fourth anniversary. The Kremlin has not openly rejected the plan and continues to call for more negotiations as its attacks continue.
Putin and Trump agreed to hold a second telephone conversation after the meeting with Zelensky, as Yuri Ushakov, foreign advisor to the Russian president, explained this Sunday. Moscow has stressed that Trump is in a hurry “to end the war soon,” even as Putin emphasizes his demands for what he sees as the need to address the “root causes” of the war.
It won’t be long, a year after Trump’s inauguration. During the campaign that brought him back to the White House, he repeatedly promised that he would be able to end the war in Ukraine on his first day in the Oval Office. And he insists that this conflict would never have arisen if he had been in charge in Washington. On Friday, the American president warned in a brief interview with Policy that Zelensky “doesn’t have anything until he approves it” himself. “We’ll see what he has,” added the Republican.
Zelensky arrived in Palm Beach on Saturday, after a stopover in Canada, where he met another, less voluble ally: Prime Minister Mark Carney, who announced additional aid of 2.5 billion dollars (around 2.1 billion euros) to Ukraine. Later, from the city of Halifax, Zelensky met by videoconference to prepare for Sunday’s meeting with European leaders such as Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Council President António Costa, Germany’s Friedrich Merz, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Britain’s Keir Starmer and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni.
On Sunday, Zelensky recalled in his X account that Putin “even rejected Christmas ceasefire proposals and is intensifying the brutality of his missile and drone attacks.” “It’s a clear sign of how they really think about diplomacy,” he added. “So far, they’re not taking it seriously enough.” The meeting with Trump comes a day after the Kremlin launched a massive 10-hour nighttime bombardment. He had kyiv as his main target, but not only that: drones and missiles once again destroyed the entire country. To emphasize that he is not abandoning his warmongering, Putin visited a military installation this Saturday.
Security guarantees
Zelensky aspires to obtain security guarantees from Florida that Ukraine would obtain after signing an agreement with Russia. kyiv conditions any decision to end the war on the United States and its European partners, guaranteeing them a level of defense protection similar to that which Ukraine would enjoy if it were a member of NATO. “The question is what security guarantees Trump is ready to give us,” Zelensky said on Saturday, according to Ukrainian state agency Ukrinform.
Trump, for his part, wants Ukrainian troops to withdraw from the 25% of Donetsk province that they still control and for this area to become a demilitarized zone. kyiv demands that the Russian army withdraw to equivalent territory, which Moscow is not willing to do.
Zelensky and Trump are also expected to discuss the management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The largest nuclear power plant on the European continent has been occupied by Russia since the first year of the invasion. The White House is proposing that American companies manage the factory in coordination with Moscow and kyiv. Ukraine and Russia are asking to exclude the other from the equation.
Zelensky also believes that a hypothetical agreement with Russia should be ratified by the Ukrainians in a referendum. And to do this, he is demanding a ceasefire of at least two months. Several Putin advisers have indicated in recent days that they also have no intention of taking this step. According to Ushakov, Putin and Trump expressed a similar opinion on this truce during their meeting on Sunday. “This only prolongs the conflict,” the Kremilon official said.
Also sitting at the negotiating table this Sunday is Trump’s ego, who aspires to go down in history as a great peacemaker and sees Ukraine and Russia as two obstacles on this path.
Hours before the meeting with Zelensky, the President of the United States wrote a message on Truth, his social network, to exaggerate his achievements and take credit for “the temporary cessation of clashes between Thailand and Cambodia.” “It was a quick and decisive solution, as all such situations should be! The United States, as always, is proud to have contributed. With all the wars and conflicts I have resolved and stopped over the past 11 months, EIGHT in total, perhaps the United States has become the true United Nations, which has provided very little help in any of these conflicts, including the current catastrophe between Russia and Ukraine. The United Nations must start taking action and getting involved in world peace!” Trump wrote.
About The Author
