President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are set to meet in Florida on Sunday afternoon as both leaders look to make progress on a potential peace deal to end the war in Ukraine.
“These are currently some of the most active diplomatic days of the year, and much can be decided before the New Year,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on Telegram Sunday.
“Whether decisions will be made depends on our partners — on those who help Ukraine and on those who put pressure on Russia so that the Russians feel the consequences of their own aggression,” he added.
The meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. in Palm Beach, the White House said Sunday, and comes just over a day after Russia launched a massive missile attack on Ukraine’s capital, killing at least one person and injuring at least 20, according to Kyiv’s mayor.
On Saturday, Zelenskyy said in a post on X that the Russian attack involved almost 500 drones and 40 missiles aimed at Kyiv.
Following a Saturday meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on his way to Florida, Zelenskyy said that “sufficient pressure” should be placed on Russia following this weekend’s attacks.
“Russia continues to mock our cities and people. Moscow has rejected even the proposals for a Christmas ceasefire and is increasing the ferocity of its missile and drone strikes. This is a clear signal of how they really feel about diplomacy,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. “So far, it has not been taken seriously enough. Therefore, Ukraine needs sufficient support. And sufficient pressure needs to be put on Russia.”
In a WhatsApp chat with journalists on Friday, Zelenskyy outlined his agenda for the meeting, which he said would include discussing security guarantees he hopes the U.S. can promise to Ukraine to dissuade Russia from ever invading again.
“We want to discuss several nuances regarding security guarantees,” Zelenskyy said, adding that there are already “several” drafted agreements for security guarantees in place between Ukraine, the U.S. and European allies.
“We still need to discuss them again. And, as I said, changes are being made daily to all these documents by our negotiating teams,” the Ukrainian president added.
On Saturday, Zelenskyy told reporters in a new WhatsApp chat that any negotiations on security guarantees depend on Trump’s buy-in.
“This primarily depends on President Trump. The question is what security guarantees President Trump is ready to provide to Ukraine,” he said.
A Ukrainian official familiar with the planning of the meeting told NBC News on Friday that in addition to security guarantees, the Ukrainian side is prepared to discuss economic prosperity and reconstruction of the war-torn country.
There are also talks of a joint news conference with Trump and Zelenskyy following the meeting, not necessarily to announce anything new but to discuss the results of the talks, the Ukrainian official said.
Zelenskyy had said in the WhatsApp chat with journalists that a 20-point peace plan they had been working on was “90% ready.”
Trump told Politico on Friday that Zelenskyy “doesn’t have anything until I approve it, so we’ll see what he’s got.”
The meeting comes weeks after Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he would be open to meeting with Zelenskyy or Russian President Vladimir Putin, “ONLY when the deal to end this War is FINAL or, in its final stages.”
U.S. officials met separately with Russian envoys and Ukrainian and European officials in Florida for peace talks this month. U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff summarized the gatherings with Ukrainian officials in a post on X as “a series of productive and constructive meetings.”
“Ukraine remains fully committed to achieving a just and sustainable peace,” he added.
In a separate post, Witkoff characterized meetings with Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev as “productive and constructive.”
One of the sticking points in the ongoing peace talks is territory, with Russia wanting to keep the Ukrainian land it has seized in the war and Ukraine refusing to give up the contested territories.
But Zelenskyy has expressed some openness to compromise in recent weeks. He told reporters last week that he would be willing to withdraw forces from the country’s eastern industrial heartland if the area becomes a demilitarized zone monitored by international forces, and Russia also pulls out.
Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., last week expressed skepticism that Russia would accept a peace deal with robust security guarantees for Ukraine, telling NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” “We keep engaging Russia, we keep trying to lure Putin to the peace table, and he rebuffs all of our efforts.”
Putin has promised to continue his military campaign in Ukraine if peace talks fail, and he told NBC News during a press event earlier this month that “the ball is entirely in the court” of Ukraine and its Western allies in peace talks.
He also blamed Ukraine for starting the war, which began when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. “We do not consider ourselves responsible for the loss of life, because it was not us who started this war,” he told reporters.
On Saturday, Putin continued his attacks on Ukrainian leadership, saying while visiting a military outpost, “The ringleaders of the Kyiv regime are in no hurry today to solve this conflict peacefully.”
Earlier this month, Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Putin in Moscow for a five-hour meeting that yielded no compromise.
That came weeks after the Trump administration set off a firestorm by revealing a proposed peace plan that Ukrainian leaders, European allies and U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle criticized, saying it was too favorable to Russia.
Trump and Zelenskyy have met several times in the past year, most notably in February, when a televised meeting between the two leaders and Vice President JD Vance devolved into a shouting match.
Trump then met with Putin in Alaska in August.
