Trump and Zelensky see the peace agreement in Ukraine “very close”, despite the fact that “one or two thorny issues” are still unresolved

The president of the United States, Donald Trumphe assured this Sunday, after meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodímir Zelenskithat the peace agreement to end the war in Ukraine is “very close.” However, after a day of diplomatic contacts with European leaders, as well as a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Republican has acknowledged that There are still “one or two very thorny issues” to be resolved, especially with regard to the future status of the disputed one.

“I think we are getting closer, maybe very close,” Trump said in a joint press conference, held after the meeting with Zelensky at Mar-a-Lago. The US president has placed the degree of agreement at levels never seen since the beginning of the conflict, before adding that we will have to wait “a few weeks” to know if the negotiations prosper. “We can say that we are at 95%, but I don’t like to talk about percentages. I think we are making very good progress,” he said, while insisting on the urgency of making progress to avoid more deaths.

For his part, the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, who has also assessed this latest meeting with Trump as positive, has confirmed that both parties have agreed to meet again “in the coming weeks” to “close all the issues that are still under discussion”, although he has avoided specifying dates or place for that meeting. As explained, he would be “90% agreed”with American support to guarantee the security of Ukraine after the ceasefire. The Ukrainian president has stated that there is already an understanding on this issue, while Trump, more cautious, has placed the agreement on this issue at around 95% and has indicated that Europe will assume a relevant role with the backing of Washington.

At the same time, Zelensky has also opened the door to a simultaneous holding of the presidential elections in Ukraine and a referendum on his twenty-point peace plan, which serves as the basis for the talks. However, this call for the presidential elections has been an unpopular option in Ukraine, rejected by the main Ukrainian political parties because they would be held in the middle of a war and because it would require changes in legislation, although kyiv has shown itself more willing to explore this route at Trump’s insistence, in a move that is interpreted as an attempt to prevent Moscow and Washington from questioning the legitimacy of its government.

Donbas, main obstacle

The future of Donbas remains the main obstacle for Russia and Ukraine to sign a peace agreement to end the war. Both Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky have acknowledged that, after this day of negotiations, the territorial issue still remains unresolved. From kyiv they have proposed as options freeze the current front line or fix a demilitarized zone in some parts of the Donetsk regionstill under Ukrainian control and also claimed by Russia. Zelensky has reiterated his intention to soften proposals that would imply the complete withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Donbas, as defended by Moscow. “It is an unresolved issue, but we are getting very close. It is a very difficult issue,” Trump admitted.

The struggle for the Donbas region, which includes the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, is not a minor issue. Not only is it a key area from an industrial and military point of view, it is also one of the main fronts of the Russian-Ukrainian war since 2014, when the Russian occupation of eastern Ukraine began. Its control directly affects Russia’s defensive capacity, the Ukrainian military deployment on its border and the viability of a stable ceasefire, since it will determine where the new border lines will be established, what forces would be deployed on them and what margin each party would have to rearm or apply military pressure.

For the European Union, the future of the Donbas region has implications that go beyond the war in Ukraine. A territorial cession would consolidate a forcible change of borders on the continent, weakening the principle of territorial integrity that underpins the European security architecture. Furthermore, an agreement that does not stably close the status of the region would transfer to the EU much of the political and material weight of the process, from security guarantees to reconstruction and economic support for Ukraine, which explains Brussels’ insistence on firm commitments “from day one.”

Precisely, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has positively assessed the state of the multilateral negotiations on the peace agreement. In a message published on the social network “Europe is prepared to continue working with Ukraine and our American partners to consolidate this progress. Fundamental to this effort is having strong security guarantees from day one,” he wrote.

Along with the territorial issue, during the meeting between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky in Florida, other sensitive issues that remain unresolved have also been addressed. Among them, the future of the management and control of the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant. According to the Ukrainian president, this is one of the points that Ukraine wants to clarify within the framework of the negotiation, while the United States has proposed different formulas, including shared control, without there being a concrete agreement for now.

Moscow reacts to Florida meeting

Before the arrival of the Ukrainian delegation to the Mar-aLago mansion in Florida, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, spoke by phone with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. The US president has described this conversation as “productive” and has assured that the talks are moving “in the right direction.”

From Moscow, the Kremlin has made it clear that it maintains fundamental differences regarding the twenty-point peace plan. Putin’s foreign policy advisor, Yuri Ushakov, has stated that the Russian president considers that the 60-day ceasefire proposed by the European Union and Ukraine would serve to prolong the war, which is why he has insisted that kyiv must make a decision “without further delay” on the future of Donbas. After the meeting in Florida, the Kremlin’s special envoy for economic cooperation, has praised Washington’s mediation efforts on social media: “Everyone appreciates the peace efforts of President Trump and his team.”

In this framework, Russia has confirmed that it has accepted the working group format that Washington has proposed to address the security and economic aspects of the conflict. As detailed by Donald Trump, on the part of the United States the group will be made up of the special envoySecretary of State Marco Rubiothe head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caineand the president’s son-in-law, . The American president has stressed that they will have to work directly with Moscow and has warned that, without that involvement, “we are not going to solve the problem.”

The meeting took place in a context of military pressure on Ukraine. Russia has intensified missile and drone attacks against kyiv and other areas of the country this weekend, causing electricity and heating outages in the capital. Zelensky has linked these bombings to the Russian response to diplomatic efforts promoted by the United States, while Trump has claimed to believe that both Putin and the Ukrainian president are serious in their desire to achieve peace.