Assurances that Kiev is making every possible effort to end the war with , the president of Ukraine gave in a post, as he prepares to meet the US president Donald Trump in Mar-a-lago in . As Zelensky added, however, the achievement of peace ultimately depends on its partners.
“These are probably the most diplomatically busy days of the year and much can be resolved before the New Year. We are doing everything we can, but whether decisions are made depends on our partners,” he wrote on the Telegram app, ahead of the talks in Florida.
According to him, Ukraine’s allies should increase pressure on Moscow, “so that the Russians feel the consequences of their own aggression.”
Attacks from both sides in anticipation of the meeting with Trump
Zelensky is expected to meet with Trump in the latest round of diplomatic contacts in Florida at about 1:00 p.m. local time (20:00 Greek time).
The meeting will take place at the former US president’s residence in Mar-a-Lago and will be the first live contact between the two men since October.
In the days leading up to the talks, Russia has stepped up its attacks on the Ukrainian capital, launching missiles and drones at Kiev in a bid to increase pressure on Zelensky.
Russian forces hit an energy facility in the Poltava region, damaging technological equipment, the head of the local administration, Volodymyr Kogut, wrote in a Telegram post this morning, detailing two recent Russian attacks.
The Ukrainian military said on Sunday it had hit the Shizran oil refinery in Russia’s Samara region in a nighttime drone strike.
According to the General Staff in Kyiv, the strike caused a fire, while the damage is still being assessed.
Since August, Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on Russian refineries and other critical energy infrastructure as part of its bid to cut off Moscow’s oil revenues, which are a key source of funding for Russia’s full-scale invasion, which begins in February 2022.
What is happening in Zaporizhia?
The situation at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which is under Russian control, is stable and power is provided through a high-voltage line, the state news agency RIA reported, citing a spokesman for the plant.
A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) monitors repair work in the area around the station, after a local ceasefire brokered by the agency began. The work is estimated to last several days.
Moscow’s messages
Moscow has repeatedly insisted that Ukraine must cede all of Donbas, including areas that remain under Kiev’s control, while Russian officials have objected to other parts of the latest proposal. That adds to doubts about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will accept any outcome from Sunday’s talks.
Putin said on Saturday that Russia would continue the war if Kiev did not seek a swift peace. In recent weeks and months, Russian forces have made steady advances on the battlefield, announcing on Sunday the capture of even more settlements.
Zelensky’s position
The Ukrainian president told Axios on Friday that he still hopes a US proposal for a complete withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Donbas will be “watered down”. Otherwise, he said, the entire 20-point plan — the result of weeks of negotiations — should be put to a referendum.
According to Axios, US officials see Zelensky’s willingness to go ahead with a referendum as an important step forward and a sign that he no longer rules out territorial concessions. However, he has made it clear that Russia would first have to agree to a 60-day truce so Ukraine could prepare and hold the vote.
However, a recent poll shows that Ukrainian voters may also reject the plan.
Thorns around the territorial issue
Kiev and Washington have agreed on many points, and Zelensky said on Friday that the 20-point plan was 90 percent complete. However, the question of which territories—if any—will be ceded to Russia remains unresolved.
Moscow demands full acquisition of Donbass, while Kiev wants a “freeze” of the situation on the current front lines. The United States, seeking a compromise, has proposed creating a free economic zone if Ukraine withdraws from the region, although it remains unclear how that would work in practice.
Zelensky, whose past meetings with Trump have not always been smooth, worries — along with his European allies — that Trump could “sell out” Ukraine, leaving European countries with the burden of supporting a devastated country. These concerns are heightened as Russian forces occupy between 12 and 17 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory per day by 2025.
Russia fully controls Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, and has seized about 12 percent of Ukrainian territory since the start of the invasion nearly four years ago. According to Russian estimates, this includes about 90% of Donbas, 75% of Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, as well as parts of Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
On December 19, Putin said a peace deal should be based on the conditions he had set in 2024: Ukraine’s complete withdrawal from Donbas, Zaporizhia and Kherson, as well as a formal abandonment of its pursuit of NATO membership.
Ukrainian officials and European leaders see the war as an imperialist-style land grab by Moscow and warn that if Russia achieves its goals in Ukraine, it could turn on NATO countries in the future.
