U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy are “getting very close, maybe very close” to an agreement to end the war in Ukraine, although both leaders acknowledged that some of the thornier details have yet to be resolved.
Both spoke at a joint news conference Sunday afternoon, after meeting at the Trump resort in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. Trump said it will be clear “in a few weeks” whether negotiations to end the war will succeed.
Zelenskiy said an agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine had been reached. Trump was a bit more cautious, saying they were 95% of the way toward the deal and that he expected European countries to “take on a lot of the responsibility” of that effort with U.S. support.
Zelenskiy has previously said he hoped to soften the U.S. proposal for a complete withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region, a Russian demand that would mean giving up part of Ukrainian-held territory.
Trump and Zelenskiy said on Sunday that the future of Donbas was unresolved.
“It’s not solved, but it’s getting very close. It’s a very difficult question,” Trump said.
Shortly before Zelenskiy and his delegation arrived at Trump’s Florida residence, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation described as “productive” by the US president and “friendly” by Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov.
According to Ushakov, Putin told Trump that a 60-day ceasefire proposed by the European Union and Ukraine would prolong the war. The Kremlin adviser also said that Ukraine must make a decision on Donbass “without further delay.”
He further added that “the Russian government had agreed to create working groups to resolve the conflict that would focus on economic and security concerns.”
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