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 once again introduced a last-minute script twist. They were close to the meeting when he announced in a message on Truth, his social network, that he had spoken by phone with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. Trump defined it as a “positive and very productive” call.
The meeting between Trump and Zelensky finally arrived after 1:25 p.m. (local time, 7:25 p.m. in mainland Spain). Both met the press briefly at the doors of Mar-a-Lago. Trump spoke above all, saying: “I think we are ready for a pact. The talks are in their final phase. (Whatever comes out of them) It will be good for Ukraine. Good for everyone.” He also stated that “there will be a solid security agreement,” and that “European nations are very involved.” “The war either ends now, or it will last much longer, and millions more people will die. Nobody wants that,” he warned.
Afterwards, both entered the large dining room of the president’s mansion, and sat around the table with their collaborators, against the background of American and Ukrainian flags. Three hours later, they appeared before the press again, and Trump said that the meeting had been “excellent”, that they had fulfilled “95% of the agreement” and that after the meal, both spoke with European leaders, among whom were the German Friedrich Merz, the Frenchman Emmanuel Macron, the British Keir Starmer and the Italian Giorgia Meloni. “I think we are getting very close, maybe very close,” added Trump, who stated that the talks will continue in the next two weeks. “We are going to talk a lot.”
Zelensky brought to Florida the 20-point peace plan proposed by Washington weeks ago and tweaked in the latest contacts by the Ukrainian and American negotiators. And two issues stood out on the agenda: the fate of Donbas, a semi-occupied region in the east of the attacked country, whose total cession Trump requests for Russia; and control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, now in the hands of Moscow.
The Ukrainian president also counted on strengthening the security guarantees that Trump spoke of. kyiv conditions any decision on ending the war on the United States and its European partners guaranteeing it a level of defense protection similar to what Ukraine would have if it were a member of NATO. “The question is what guarantee Trump is willing to give us,” Zelensky had said this Saturday, according to the Ukrainian state agency Ukrinform.
“There is a lot to decide before the end of the year,” the Ukrainian leader declared on Sunday, defining these days as among those of “greatest diplomatic activity” in 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 renounce the 20-point plan agreed upon with kyiv and return to the 27-point draft based on what both leaders spoke about in August in Alaska. That is, to the project of a peace that would leave Ukraine disarmed and granting territory that Moscow has not conquered.
With the background of the telephone conversation with Putin, it was even less clear, despite the wishes of the Ukrainian president, that Mar-a-Lago would result in a great achievement on the path to peace. In October, the last time Trump spoke with the head of the Kremlin before meeting Zelensky, he left empty-handed from a visit to the White House in which he hoped to spark a commitment that the United States would send long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.
The advances – slow, but sure – of Russian forces in recent weeks also indicate that Putin, despite the pressure of sanctions on an economy that is facing recession and the brutal number of casualties among his troops, still does not seem 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 while its attacks continue.
Putin and Trump agreed to have a second call after the meeting with Zelensky, as Yuri Ushakov, foreign advisor to the Russian president, explained this Sunday, and Trump also confirmed to the press. Moscow stressed that it is in a hurry “to end the war soon,” although Putin insists on his demands for what he considers the need to address its “deep causes.”
It won’t be long until it is one 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 started had he been at the helm in Washington. On Friday, the American president warned in a brief interview with Political that Zelensky “has nothing until he approves it” himself. “We’ll see what he has,” added the Republican.
Zelensky arrived in Palm Beach on Saturday, after stopping in Canada, where he met with another ally, this one less voluble: Prime Minister Mark Carney, who announced additional aid of 2.5 billion dollars (about 2.1 billion euros) for Ukraine. Later, from the city of Halifax, Zelensky met by videoconference to prepare for Sunday’s meeting with European leaders.
On Sunday, Zelensky recalled in his X account that Putin “has even rejected proposals for a Christmas ceasefire and is intensifying the brutality of his missile and drone attacks.” “This is a clear sign of how they really conceive diplomacy, he added. “So far, they are not taking it seriously enough.” The meeting with Trump takes place a day after the Kremlin launched a huge 10-hour night bombardment. It had kyiv as its main target, but not only: drones and missiles once again brought destruction to the entire country. To underline that he is not giving up his warmongering, Putin visited a military installation this Saturday.
Trump, for his part, wants Ukrainian troops to withdraw from the 25% of Donetsk province that they still control, and for that area to become a demilitarized zone. kyiv demands that the Russian army withdraw into an equivalent territory, something to which Moscow has not been willing.
Zelensky and Trump were also scheduled to discuss the management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The largest atomic plant on the European continent has been occupied by Russia since the first year of the invasion. The White House proposes that American companies manage the plant in coordination with Moscow and kyiv. Both Ukraine and Russia ask to exclude the other from the equation.
Zelensky also considers that a hypothetical agreement with Russia has to be ratified by the Ukrainians in a referendum. And to do so, he calls for a ceasefire of at least two months. Several Putin advisers have indicated in recent days that they do not intend to jump through that hoop either. According to Ushakov, Putin and Trump expressed a similar opinion about that truce when they spoke this Sunday. “It only serves to prolong the conflict,” the Kremlin official said.
Also sitting at the negotiating table this Sunday, as usual, was Trump’s ego, who aspires to go down in history as a great peacemaker, and sees Ukraine and Russia as two obstacles on that 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 “momentary cessation of clashes between Thailand and Cambodia.” “It was a quick and decisive solution, as all these situations should be! The United States, as always, is proud to have contributed. With all the wars and conflicts that I have resolved and stopped in the last 11 months, EIGHT in total, perhaps the United States has become the true United Nations Organization, which has provided very little help in any of these conflicts, including the current catastrophe between Russia and Ukraine. The United Nations must start acting and getting involved in world peace!,” Trump wrote.
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