Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump will meet in Florida on Sunday to hammer out a plan to end the war in Ukraine, but face major differences on crucial issues and provocations from Russian air attacks. Russia struck Kyiv and other parts of war-torn Ukraine with hundreds of missiles and drones on Saturday, knocking out power and heat in parts of the capital. Zelensky called it Russia’s response to the ongoing US-brokered peace efforts.
Zelensky has told journalists that he plans to discuss the fate of eastern Ukraine’s contested Donbas region during the meeting at Trump’s Florida residence, as well as the future of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and other topics. Moscow has repeatedly insisted that Ukraine yield all of the Donbas, even areas still under Kyiv’s control, and Russian officials have objected to other parts of the latest proposal, sparking doubts about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would accept whatever Sunday’s talks might produce. The Ukrainian president told Axios on Friday he still hopes to soften a US proposal for Ukrainian forces to withdraw completely from the Donbas.
Failing that, Zelensky said the entire 20-point plan, the result of weeks of negotiations, should be put to a referendum vote. Axios said US officials viewed Zelensky’s willingness to hold a referendum as a major step forward and a sign that he was no longer ruling out territorial concessions, though he said Russia would need to agree to a 60-day ceasefire to allow Ukraine to prepare for and hold such a vote. A recent poll suggests that Ukrainian voters may also reject the plan.
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Zelensky’s in-person meeting with Trump, scheduled for 1pm, follows weeks of diplomatic efforts. European allies, while at times cut out of the loop, have stepped up efforts to sketch out the contours of a post-war security guarantee for Kyiv that would be supported by the US. Kyiv and Washington have agreed on many issues, and Zelensky said on Friday that the 20-point plan was 90% finished.
But the issue of what territory, if any, will be ceded to Russia remains unresolved. While Moscow insists on getting all of the Donbas, Kyiv wants the map frozen at current battle lines. The US, seeking a compromise, has proposed a free economic zone if Ukraine leaves the area, though it remains unclear how that zone would function in practical terms.
Zelensky, whosepast meetingswith Trump have not always gone smoothly, worries along with his European allies that Trump could sell out Ukraine and leave European powers to foot the bill for supporting a devastated nation, after Russian forces took 12 to 17 square kilometres of its territory per day in 2025. Russia controls all of Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, and since its invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago has taken control of about 12% of its territory, including about 90% of Donbas, 75% of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and slivers of the Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, according to Russian estimates.
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