President Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, will meet Sunday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort this weekend to discuss efforts to end Russia’s invasion, The Post has learned.
“I think we’ll meet with President Trump on Sunday in Florida,” Zelensky told reporters after writing on X that a “meeting at the highest level” would take place “in the near future” and adding that “[a] lot can be decided before the New Year.”
A White House official confirmed later Friday that the meeting had been set. The planned Sunday sitdown was first reported by Axios.
President Donald Trump greets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky outside the White House before a meeting on Oct. 17, 2025. AFP via Getty ImagesOn Thursday, Zelensky revealed that he had a “very good conversation” with Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff and first son-in-law Jared Kushner after announcing he was willing to withdraw troops from Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland in a bid to finalize a 20-point peace plan.
“I thank [Witkoff and Kushner] for the constructive approach, the intensive work, and the kind words and Christmas greetings to the Ukrainian people,” the Ukrainian president wrote on X. “We are truly working 24/7 to bring closer the end of this brutal Russian war against Ukraine and to ensure that all documents and steps are realistic, effective, and reliable.”
Trump has unleashed an extensive diplomatic push to end the war, but his efforts have run into sharply conflicting demands by Moscow and Kyiv.
Zelensky said Tuesday he would accept the eastern Donbas region becoming an internationally monitored, demilitarized “free economic zone” if Russia agreed to stop its invasion.
Though Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday that there had been “slow but steady progress” in the peace talks, Moscow has given no indication that it will agree to any kind of withdrawal from land it has seized.
In fact, the Kremlin has insisted that Ukraine relinquish all remaining territory it still holds in the Donbas — an ultimatum that Kyiv has rejected.
Zelensky listens to Trump speak during a lunch meeting with members of his cabinet at the White House on Oct. 17, 2025. Getty Images
People walk along a street heavily damaged by a Russian attack in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on Dec. 17, 2025. 24th Mechanized Brigade of Ukrainian Armed Forces/AFP via Getty Images
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with President Donald Trump at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on Aug. 15, 2025. AFP via Getty ImagesRussia has captured most of Luhansk and about 70% of Donetsk — the two areas that make up the Donbas.
The demilitarization plan endorsed by Zelensky would prevent Kyiv from having to formally recognize any Ukrainian land as Russian, but it would need to be approved by the country’s voters in a referendum.
Other key elements of the 20-point plan, as described by Zelensky, include a full cease-fire and the organization of elections in Ukraine as soon as possible; a coordinated military response by the US, NATO and other European nations in the event the Russian invasion restarts; a peacetime cap of 800,000 on Ukraine’s military forces; a guarantee of future EU membership for Ukraine; and the development of separate free trade agreements between the US and both combatants.
“I can’t say right now if anything will be finalized,” Zelensky said Friday. “This meeting is to work out issues as much as possible. All issues where we have questions or disagreements, we will definitely raise them.”
On the battlefield, Ukraine’s forces secured a much-needed victory this week, pushing Russian troops out of the key logisitical hub of Kupyansk fewer than two weeks after Moscow claimed to have captured the city.
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War reported on Christmas Eve that pro-Russian online sources, known as “milbloggers,” have accused military commanders of “false and exaggerated claims” about the extent of their earlier gains in Kupyansk.
ISW also assessed that Russia “does not have sufficient manpower or materiel” to conquer the remainder of Donetsk “while simultaneously continuing offensive operations elsewhere.”
“The Kremlin is therefore making demands in negotiations that Ukraine cede the unoccupied parts of Donetsk Oblast, likely in order to save Russia the personnel and materiel resources and possibly to put Russia in a more advantageous position to re-invade in the future to pursue Putin’s longer-term strategic goal of controlling all of Ukraine,” the assessment went on.
Elsewhere, Russian drone attacks on the Black Sea port city of Mykolaiv and its suburbs overnight into Friday left part of the city without power.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said it struck a major Russian oil refinery Thursday using British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles.
Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces hit the Novoshakhtinsk refinery in Russia’s Rostov region, writing on Telegram that “[m]ultiple explosions were recorded.”
Rostov regional Gov. Yuri Slyusar said a firefighter was wounded when extinguishing the fire.
Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries aim to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue its full-scale invasion.
Russia wants to cripple the Ukrainian power grid, seeking to deny civilians access to heat, light and running water in what Kyiv officials say is an attempt to “weaponize winter.”
With Post wires
