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.
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29 December 2025
French President Emmanuel Macron has said that the US, EU, and Ukraine “are making progress on the security guarantees that will be central to building a just and lasting peace”. He added that several Western countries would convene in Paris in early January to finalize each nation’s concrete contributions.
28 December 2025
Following 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.
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”.
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”.
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.”
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.
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.
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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.
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?’”
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.
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.”
Trump says that he has “offered to go and speak to [the Ukrainian] parliament… It would probably help,” prompting exclamation from Zelensky, “You are welcome!”
The US president added, however, that he was not certain whether this would be necessary.
Territorial concessions remain one of the thorniest issues for the settlement, Trump says. “Some of that land may be up for grabs. It may be taken over the next period of a number of months.”
Trump concurs with Zelensky, saying that the peace plan will have to be approved by the Ukrainian parliament or by the people.
Zelensky has acknowledged the possibility of a parliamentary vote or a referendum on territorial concessions. “If the plan [is] very difficult for our society, of course, our society will have to choose, has to vote.”
Trump notes that “the word ‘agreed’ is too strong,” but added that the sides are getting closer to an agreement.
The negotiations focused on the 20-point plan, Zelensky said, claiming that “90% have been agreed” upon. “US-Ukraine security guarantees [are] 100% agreed. US-Europe-Ukraine security guarantees [are] almost agreed,” he said, without elaborating.
Zelensky has said the sides have had “great discussions” while thanking US special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as top members of the Ukrainian delegation for their contribution.
Trump has called the meeting “excellent.” “We’ve made a lot of progress… we’ve covered 95%.” “We’ve had discussions on just about every subject, that includes with President Putin before. We went into great detail.”
The Trump-Zelensky press conference has started with the US president saying that “we’re getting… very close” to a settlement as a result of his talks with Russian and Ukrainian leaders.
Trump and Zelensky have held a one-hour phone call with European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Polish President Karol Nawrocki, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, and EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, according to Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
Trump and Zelensky are expected to speak at a joint press conference at Mar-a-Lago, according to journalist Ekaterina Lisunova.
The Trump-Zelensky meeting has ended after lasting about two hours, according to several media outlets. The US president and the Ukrainian leader are reportedly holding video talks with several European leaders.
During the meeting, Zelensky told Trump it was the first time he had visited the Mar-a-Lago residence, to which the US president replied the place was “very conducive to deals.”
Mar-a-Lago staffers are also serving food to the press, Deutsche Welle correspondent Misha Komadovsky has said. “No cameras allowed,” he added.
Among the food served were pigs in a blanket, steak, fries, and coconut shrimp.
The meeting has been going for more than two hours as of now.
While the journalists were waiting, they claimed to have seen the menu for the Ukrainian delegation, which reportedly included steaks with fries and chicken broth.
Moscow dismissed the Ukrainian leader's initiative as a non-starter. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Friday that the proposal could “barely” be called a peace plan. It is “radically different” from what Moscow was discussing with Washington, he added.
The 20-point plan revealed by Zelensky ahead of the meeting includes NATO Article 5-style guarantees for Kiev, as well as a fixed deadline for Ukraine’s EU membership. Kiev also expects to be allowed to keep an 800,000-strong army and freeze the hostilities along the current frontline. Ukraine demanded $800 billion to rebuild its economy.
Zelensky also seeks to assume partial control over the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant located in a region that is now officially part of Russia. The US would be the second nation controlling the station under the plan.
The talks also come as Ukraine is reeling from a series of high-profile corruption scandals. The latest one broke out on Saturday, just a day before the Florida meeting, when Ukraine's anti-graft agencies reported uncovering a criminal vote-rigging and bribery scheme involving serving members of the Ukrainian parliament.
Last month, the anti-corruption bodies revealed another scheme involving a close associate of Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky, Timur Mindich, who ran a $100 million kickback scheme in the energy sector, which heavily depends on Western aid.
The scandals have reportedly weakened Zelensky’s position and made him more receptive to US-mediated peace efforts. In mid-December, the Washington Post reported that the Mindich scandal forced the Ukrainian leader to enter negotiations on the US-backed peace plan that he and Kiev’s European backers had previously rejected.
The meeting comes just a day after the Russian Defense Ministry reported liberating several settlements, including the strategic town of Gulaypole in Zaporozhye Region, in the latest push on the frontline, where Russian troops have been on the offensive for months. Putin congratulated the military on the success during a meeting with top generals at a command post on Saturday.
Control over Gulaypole, which was a backbone of a fortified area of 76 square kilometers, opens “good prospects” for further advances in the area, the president said. Russian troops also finished clearing operations in Dmitrov (known as Mirnograd in Ukraine), a strategic town in the Donetsk People’s Republic. The Russian president called the development a major step towards liberating the rest of the region.
There will be a security agreement, and it “will be strong” ahead of the meeting, according to Trump.
"The European nations are very most involved in that, they are very much involved in protection, the European nations are really great... I think you can say there is nobody bad, they all wanna get it done".
Zelensky will hold a separate press conference “via a WhatsApp group chat” with journalists after meeting with Trump, a Ukrainian reporter who worked for US state-run VOA, Katerina Lisunova, has claimed.
The Ukrainian team included Kiev’s top negotiator, Rustem Umerov, Economy Minister Aleksey Sobolev, Chief of the General Staff, Major General Andrey Gnatov among others. Kiev’s ambassador to Washington, Olga Stefanishyna, was present at the negotiating table as well.
Apart from the president himself, the US team for the meeting with the Zelensky included Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Daniel Caine and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles (behind Rubio in photo).
Ahead of the meeting, Trump called Zelensky ‘very brave’: “This gentleman has worked very hard, he's very brave, and his people are very brave. Very rarely has a nation ever had to go through this. We're going to have a very good meeting today, I think.”
At the arrival, Zelensky stood on the porch for a couple of minutes, awaiting Trump and reading something on his phone, journalists who were present have said.
Trump asked journalists to leave the dining room and eat outside minutes before the talks start.
“Would you like something to eat? You can talk.” “Yes.” “Give them something to eat. But not here. Organize a lunch for them.”
Kirill Dmitriev, the Russian presidential envoy involved in talks with the US, wrote that Trump will call Putin to continue negotiations after his discussions with Ukrainian and European officials.
In a brief post on X, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wished “good luck” to Zelensky as he began his meeting with Trump.
Zelensky shook hands with Trump as he arrived at Mar-a-Lago and said, “Good to see you,” as he thanked the US president for his support.
Asked by reporters why he wanted to meet Trump now, Zelensky said the US and Ukrainian negotiating teams had worked on the 20-point peace plan and made progress but that now the most contentious matters needed to be discussed between the presidents.
“It’s very important our teams talk about strategy” and “step by step” actions to take, the Ukrainian leader said.
Putin is serious about peace negotiations as is Zelensky, Trump told reporters ahead of the talks. “We’ve got to make a deal. We’ve got to get it done. There are too many people dying, and I think both presidents want to make a deal,” Trump added.
Trump and Putin agreed to continue working on settling the Ukraine conflict by establishing two working groups focused on security and the economy, Ushakov said. Further parameters of the framework are to be agreed by early January, he added.
Closed-door talks between Zelensky and Trump have just begun.
The US and Russian presidents have “similar views” when it comes to the temporary ceasefire proposal pushed forward by Kiev and its European backers, Ushakov has said. Both Trump and Putin believe it would only prolong the conflict and could potentially lead to the resumption of hostilities, according to the aide.
A “responsible” political decision by Kiev is needed for a permanent settlement, Ushakov said, adding that it should involve the Donbass territories and align with the understandings reached by Moscow and Washington.
Trump spoke about some impressive economic cooperation opportunities that would open up for Russia and the US once the Ukraine conflict is over, Ushakov has said. The American president also said that he was convinced Moscow is seeking a political and diplomatic solution to the conflict.
The two leaders exchanged New Year’s greetings and wished happiness to the Russian and American people, according to the aide.
The Russian and American presidents have agreed to talk again after Trump’s meeting with Zelensky, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov told journalists after the phone call. The initial call took place at the initiative of the US, he said, adding that Trump wanted to discuss the current situation with his Russian counterpart. They talked for an hour and 15 minutes, according to the aide.
Trump has just welcomed Zelensky to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.