Trump predicts end to Ukraine war will be decided within ‘weeks’
After meeting at Mar-a-Lago with Zelensky and a ‘friendly’ call with Putin, US president claims a peace deal is closer
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were “getting a lot closer, maybe very close” to an agreement to end the war in Ukraine, while acknowledging that the fate of the disputed Donbas region remained a key unresolved issue.
The two leaders spoke at a joint news conference after meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Sunday afternoon. Both leaders reported progress on two of the most contentious issues in peace talks: security guarantees for Ukraine and the division of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region that Russia has sought to capture.
Both Trump and Zelensky offered few details and did not provide a deadline for completing a peace deal, although Trump said it would be clear “in a few weeks” whether negotiations to end the war will succeed. He said a few “thorny issues” around territory must be resolved.
Zelensky said an agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine has been reached. Trump was slightly more cautious, saying that they were 95 per cent of the way to such an agreement, and that he expected European countries to “take over a big part” of that effort with US backing.
On Monday, Zelensky said a draft peace framework envisaged 15-year US security guarantees for Ukraine, though he noted he asked Trump for a US commitment of up to 50 years.
He also wants any deal to end the war to be signed by Ukraine, Russia, Europe, and the US.