Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that he will meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday to discuss a peace deal that he claimed is almost ready.
“The 20-point plan that we worked on is 90 percent ready. Our task, to make sure that everything is 100 percent ready. It is not easy and no one says that it will be 100 percent right away, but nevertheles we must bring the desired result closer with each such meeting, each such conversation,” Zelenskyy told journalists.
He added that the meeting will focus on security guarantees, management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and territorial control of Donbas, the eastern territories claimed by Moscow.
“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.
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.
Contacts between Ukrainian and U.S. officials have intensified as prospects for a possible peace deal grow in the war-torn country, which has been resisting Russian aggression for nearly four years.
The updated 20-point draft peace plan that Zelenskyy unveiled on Wednesday includes the possibility of creating a special demilitarized economic zone in some areas of Donbas.
The Ukrainian leader said the latest version of the plan — an update of a Trump administration proposal that both Kyiv and the European Union had initially dismissed as a “non-starter” — maintains the proposed security guarantees from the U.S., NATO and European partners that are equivalent to those outlined in Article 5 of the transatlantic alliance’s treaty.