Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky said progress had been made to end the Ukraine war during Florida talks but the US leader added “one or two very thorny issues” remained.
While both the US and Ukrainian presidents described the talks as “great”, Trump reiterated that a key sticking point was the question of territory. Russia has previously demanded that Ukraine hand over more land.
Addressing reporters at Mar-a-Lago, Zelensky said they had come to an agreement on “90%” of a 20-point peace plan, while Trump said a security guarantee for Ukraine was “close to 95%” done.
Zelensky later said US and Ukrainian teams would meet next week for further talks on issues aimed at ending Russia’s nearly four-year war in Ukraine.
“We had a substantive conversation on all issues and highly value the progress that the Ukrainian and American teams have made over the past weeks,” Zelensky said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory.
A proposal to turn the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, which Russia largely controls, into a demilitarised zone remains “unresolved”, Trump said.
“Some of that land has been taken,” he told reporters after the meeting. “Some of that land is maybe up for grabs, but it may be taken over the next period of a number of months.”
Moscow currently controls about 75% of the Donetsk region, and some 99% of the neighbouring Luhansk. The regions are collectively known as Donbas.
Russia wants Ukraine to pull back from the small part of the territory it still controls in Donbas, while Kyiv has insisted the area could become a free economic zone policed by Ukrainian forces.
The US president has repeatedly changed his own position on Ukraine’s lost territories, and in September stunned observers by suggesting that Ukraine might be able to take it back. He later reversed course.
“[That] is a very tough issue,” he said. “One that will get resolved.”
Security guarantees for Ukraine are “95% done”, Trump said, without formally committing to logistical support or troop deployment to help protect Ukraine from future attacks.
Trump floated the possibility of trilateral talks between the US, Russia, and Ukraine, saying it could happen “at the right time”.
While the US president is keen to add the Ukraine-Russia war to the list of conflicts he claims to have ended, he cautioned that stalled or scrapped talks that go “really badly” could mean that the war continues.
Earlier Trump had a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. While the US president did not offer many details of the phone call, he said he believed the Russian leader “wants Ukraine to succeed”.
At the same time, Trump acknowledged that Moscow had little interest in a ceasefire that would allow Ukraine to hold a referendum.
“I understand that position,” he added.
Russian foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said the call was initiated by Trump and that he and Putin discussed the latest EU and Ukraine proposals to end the war.
Ushakov, Russia’s former US ambassador, said Trump listened to the Kremlin’s assessment of the proposals and the two presidents left the call united in their belief that a temporary ceasefire proposed by the EU and Ukraine would instead prolong the conflict.
Zelensky suggested the Ukrainian officials could meet at the White House in January, potentially alongside European leaders, as the US and Ukrainian delegations finalise plans for further talks.
In a post-meeting call with European allies, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed “good progress” in the Florida talks while reinforcing the need for Ukraine to receive “ironclad security guarantees from day one”.
French President Emmanuel Macron also said Kyiv’s allies would meet in Paris next month to discuss security guarantees.
“We will bring together the countries of the Coalition of the Willing in Paris in early January to finalise each one’s concrete contributions,” Macron said on X after speaking with Zelensky and Trump.