Trump cites ‘thorniest issue’, offers takes on Ukraine, Russia and Putin: Miami peace talks Live Updates
US President Donald Trump has held a face-to-face meeting and a press conference in Miami with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky over settling the conflict between Kiev and Moscow. The sit-down came after Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Trump by phone for over an hour.
Zelensky, who faces another corruption scandal implicating lawmakers that erupted over the weekend, is following up on days of negotiations in Florida between Ukrainian and US negotiators on a potential deal to end the Ukraine conflict.
Trump touted good progress in the talks, but acknowledged that Ukraine’s potential territorial concessions remain one of the thorniest issues on the agenda. He added that both Moscow and Kiev are working to reopen Russia’s Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.
Shortly before Zelensky’s arrival, Trump announced on his Truth Social that he had had a ”very productive” conversation with Putin, while the Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said that both ”hold broadly similar views” and that a temporary ceasefire would only prolong the conflict.
A 20-point proposal revealed by Zelensky ahead of the meeting has been dismissed by Moscow, which called it ”radically different” from what Russia and the US had discussed on the issue. Earlier, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said that Moscow was ”fully” ready to move forward with the peace process while Kiev and its European backers seek to derail it.
Trump has invited media representatives to attend the meeting, and our updates will follow events and reactions.
28 December 2025
23:54 GMTFollowing the talks, Zelensky wrote on X that US and Ukrainian delegations would meet “as early as next week to finalize all discussed matters”. He added that “we also agreed with President Trump that he will host Ukrainian and European leaders in Washington, DC, in January,” without specifying the date.
- 23:14 GMT
Commenting on the ongoing talks, Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian presidential envoy, has said that “The whole world appreciates President Trump and his team’s peace efforts”.
- 23:07 GMT
The phone call involving Trump, Zelensky, and European leaders yielded “good progress,” EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has said. “Europe is ready to keep working with Ukraine and our US partners to consolidate this progress. Paramount to this effort is to have ironclad security guarantees from day one”.
- 23:04 GMT
Asked what will happen if the peace process sputters, Trump replied, “They keep fighting, and they keep dying. No good… We don’t want that to happen. President Putin doesn’t want that to happen either.”
- 23:01 GMT
Any voting on territorial concessions that would take place abroad “will not be simple,” Zelensky says, arguing that millions of Ukrainians will need a relevant infrastructure to make their voices heard.
- 22:53 GMT
Russia “will be helping” with the reconstruction of Ukraine, Trump claims, adding that Moscow “wants Ukraine to succeed.” The US president added that he told Zelensky that Putin was “very generous” towards Kiev, including by supplying energy at bargain prices.
- 22:49 GMT
The EU “is going to take over a big part” of potential security guarantees for Ukraine, Trump says, promising that the US will also step in.
- 22:40 GMT
A trilateral summit including Putin, Trump, and Zelensky could still happen “at the right time,” the US president says. He added that he believed that the Russian president wants the conflict to end.
“Don’t forget we went through the Russia, Russia hoax together. I’d call him, and he’d call me and say, ‘Can you believe the stuff they are making up?’”
- 22:36 GMT
The working group on settling the Ukraine conflict would include Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, General John Caine, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as several other senior officials, including potentially US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to Trump. He added that the Ukrainian group would be working directly with Russia.
- 22:33 GMT
Russia’s Zaporozhye nuclear power plant loomed large on today’s talks, Trump says, noting that the facility remains “in pretty good shape” and that he discussed the issue with Putin. The Russian president “is actually working with Ukraine on getting it open.”
Trump also stressed that Russia has not attacked the nuclear plant. “it’s a big danger to do that for anybody.”
