“First of all, we are working on several documents every day, there are five of them now. We want to talk about a few nuances on security guarantees … In my opinion, I see now that the agreement between us and the United States is almost ready,” Zelenskyy said, adding that he is ready to sign a bilateral agreement depending on how the meeting goes.
The 20-point plan will be a four-party agreement between Ukraine, U.S., Russia and Europe, he added. European leaders might join the meeting online, Zelenskyy said. One official at the Elysée on Friday told reporters that a new meeting of the coalition of the willing will take place in January “to finalize the guarantees we must give to Ukraine”.
Zelenskyy is also taking steps to signal to the Trump administration that Kyiv is serious about peace going into the Sunday meeting. The Ukrainian leader said in a Friday interview with Axios that he is “ready” to put Trump’s proposal to end the war in Ukraine to a referendum if the final deal asks Kyiv to cede a lot of territory, putting a fine point on a concession Kyiv has made publicly over the last few days.
Zelenskyy, in another clear message to Washington, reiterated to Axios the need for a 60-day ceasefire with Russia to allow for campaigning, arguing that Ukrainians need to have an ample chance to vote on their country’s future and Russian attacks could undermine that effort.
“It’s better to not have a referendum than have a referendum where people cannot come and vote,” he said.
Zelenskyy’s announcement came after Thursday talks with U.S. lead negotiator Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, which the Ukrainian president called a “good conversation” and said yielded “timing on how to bring a real peace closer.