Trump Says Zelensky and Putin are ‘Serious’ About Ending Ukraine War

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - Under the chandeliers of Mar-a-Lago in Florida, US President Donald Trump struck an unusually confident tone on the prospects for peace in Ukraine, declaring that both President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin are “serious” about ending the war as diplomacy reaches what he called its final stages.

Speaking on Sunday during a meeting with Zelensky at his Florida residence, Trump said he believed the Ukrainian and Russian leaders were genuinely committed to peace, following his earlier phone conversation with Putin to discuss a new peace plan.

Trump said diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine had “reached their final stages,” while stressing that he had set no deadline for the process.

Asked whether Putin was truly committed to peace despite ongoing Russian attacks on Ukraine, Trump replied during the meeting at Mar-a-Lago, “He is very serious.”

Trump added, “I can say that I think Ukraine has also carried out some very strong attacks. I’m not saying that negatively. I think sometimes you may have to do that.”

The US president also said there would be a “strong agreement” to guarantee Ukraine’s security as part of any peace plan, noting that European countries would be included in such an arrangement.

Shortly before meeting Zelensky, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that he had held a productive conversation with Putin. The Kremlin later confirmed that the call was conducted “in a friendly atmosphere.”

Yuri Ushakov, diplomatic adviser to the Russian presidency, told journalists that the two sides had agreed to speak again by phone after Trump’s meeting with Zelensky. He added that Russia and the United States shared the view that the Ukrainian and European proposal for a temporary ceasefire “would only prolong the conflict and lead to a resumption of hostilities.”

Sunday’s meeting marked the first encounter between Trump and Zelensky since October, when the Ukrainian president sought long-range Tomahawk missiles from his US counterpart, without success.

This time, Zelensky is seeking Trump’s approval for a revised version of the peace plan to end the war, which Washington presented nearly a month earlier. On Friday, Trump told Politico that the Ukrainian president, arriving with his latest proposals on the sensitive issue of territorial division, “doesn’t have anything until I approve it.”

Following the Florida meeting, Trump and Zelensky are expected to hold a phone call with European leaders, according to the Ukrainian presidency’s spokesperson.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would continue its “engagement with US negotiators to reach lasting agreements that address the root causes of the conflict,” while criticizing European governments, according to statements carried by TASS.

The Florida summit comes after Zelensky proposed a new version of the US peace plan, revised following talks with Ukraine, a move that angered Moscow. After an initial draft seen as more accommodating to Russian demands, the Kremlin believes Kyiv is now attempting to “torpedo” the negotiations.

As pressure mounted on the battlefield, Russia announced on Saturday that it had captured two additional towns in eastern Ukraine, Mirnohrad and Huliaipole.

“If the authorities in Kyiv do not want to settle this issue peacefully, we will resolve all the problems facing us by military means,” Putin said on Saturday, adding that “the leaders of the Kyiv regime are in no hurry to resolve this conflict peacefully.”

On the eve of the Florida meeting, Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles at Kyiv and surrounding areas, killing two people and cutting electricity to more than one million homes. Zelensky said on Saturday that the attack embodied “Russia’s response to our peace efforts.”

Trump has not concealed his frustration with the pace of negotiations. On Dec. 11, his spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said he was “deeply frustrated with both sides.” On Dec. 19, the US president urged Ukraine to take steps to end the prolonged stalemate.

The latest peace proposal, a twenty-point document, suggests freezing the front lines without addressing Russia’s demand that Ukrainian forces withdraw from around 20 percent of eastern Donetsk region still under Kyiv’s control. The new text also no longer includes a legal commitment by Ukraine to refrain from joining NATO, another key Kremlin demand.

Alongside the future of Donbas and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, occupied by Russian forces in southern Ukraine, Trump and Zelensky are expected to discuss security guarantees that Western powers could offer as part of a potential peace agreement. Zelensky stressed on Saturday that “these security guarantees must come simultaneously with the end of the war.”

Before the Trump-Zelensky meeting on Sunday, the Kremlin urged Ukraine to make a “brave decision” to accept the withdrawal of its forces from Donbas in order to “end” the war.

As Trump pushes toward what he calls a final diplomatic phase, his assertion that both Kyiv and Moscow are serious about peace sets the stage for a decisive test of whether negotiations can overcome deep mistrust and intensifying pressure on the ground.