As Trump praised Putin, Zelensky tilted his head and smiled

The pair also did not offer much insight into what agreements they had reached on providing security for Ukraine after the war ends, something Zelensky described as “the key milestone in achieving a lasting peace”. Zelensky said any peace agreement would have to be approved by Ukraine’s parliament or by a referendum. Trump said he would be willing to speak to parliament if that would secure the deal.

Trump and Putin speak before Zelensky meeting

Shortly before Zelensky and his delegation arrived at Trump’s Florida residence, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke in a phone call described as “productive” by the US president and “friendly” by Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov.

Ushakov, in Moscow, said Putin told Trump that a 60-day ceasefire proposed by the European Union and Ukraine would prolong the war. The Kremlin aide also said that Ukraine needed to make a decision on the Donbas “without further delay”.

Trump said he and Putin spoke for more than two hours, and the Russian president pledged to help rebuild Ukraine, including by supplying cheap energy. “Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed,” Trump said. “It sounds a little strange.”

As Trump praised Putin, Zelensky tilted his head and smiled.

Trump said he would call Putin again following the meeting with Zelensky.

The Kremlin expressed support for Trump’s negotiations.

“The whole world appreciates President Trump and his team’s peace efforts,” Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s special envoy, posted on X after the talks.

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Nuclear plant discussed

US negotiators have also proposed shared control over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Power line repairs had begun there after another local ceasefire brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the agency said on Sunday.

Negotiators, Trump said, had made progress on deciding the fate of the plant, which could “start up almost immediately”. The US president said, “it’s a big step” that Russia had not bombed the facility.

Russia controls all of Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, and since its invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago has taken control of about 12 per cent of its territory, including about 90 per cent of Donbas, 75 per cent of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and slivers of the Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, according to Russian estimates.

The day before Zelensky arrived in Florida to meet with Trump, Russian forces attacked Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine with hundreds of missiles and drones, knocking out power and heat in parts of the Ukrainian capital. Zelensky has described the weekend attacks as Russia’s response to the US-brokered peace efforts, but Trump said he believed Putin and Zelensky were serious about peace.

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After Saturday’s air attacks, Putin said Moscow would continue waging its war if Kyiv did not seek a quick peace. Russia has steadily advanced on the battlefield in recent months, claiming control over several more settlements on Sunday.

Zelensky’s past encounters with Trump have not always gone smoothly, but the latest meeting follows weeks of diplomatic efforts. European allies, while cut out of the loop at times, have stepped up efforts to sketch out the contours of a postwar security guarantee for Kyiv that the US would support.

European heads of state joined at least part of Sunday’s meeting by phone. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X that “Europe is ready to keep working with Ukraine and our US partners”, and added that having ironclad security guarantees would be of “paramount” importance.

A spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said European leaders “underlined the importance of robust security guarantees and reaffirmed the urgency of ending this barbaric war as soon as possible”.

Reuters

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