The path to peace in Ukraine was still tangled Monday by the “thorny issues” that President Donald Trump said remained despite the optimism of his summit with Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Ukraine’s leader offered more clarity about those unresolved questions following his trip to Florida, which ended with no breakthroughs but plenty of positivity from both sides. The Kremlin agreed with Trump’s assessment that talks to end its war were in the final stage even as it stuck to its hard-line territorial demands.
After nearly three hours behind closed doors at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, the leaders emerged to say they were “very close” to a deal, and “90%” of the way there. But it’s those remaining “one or two very thorny issues,” as Trump put it, that will decide whether an agreement can be found between Kyiv and Moscow.
Answering questions from reporters in a WhatsApp chat Monday, Zelenskyy outlined one key area where there does seem to have been progress.
The Ukrainian leader said Trump was now offering Kyiv legally binding security guarantees that would last for 15 years, though he had asked for them to remain in place for up to half a century.
“I told him that we have been at war for almost 15 years, and therefore we would very much like the guarantees to be longer,” Zelenskyy said, referring to Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and backing of pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s east before a full-scale invasion in 2022.
He said Trump indicated he would consider longer guarantees, adding that they include how a peace deal would be monitored as well as the “presence” of partners.
But while Ukraine appeared positive about this offer to guarantee its security against future Russian aggression, few details were made public and it was unclear how Russia would view the proposal.
Zelenskyy also made clear that the fate of key territory remains unresolved.
Control over the eastern Donbas region and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant remain crucial sticking points in Trump’s 20-point peace plan, a version of the original U.S. proposal that has been modified through weeks of intense diplomacy.
Ukraine still controls a chunk of Donbas and has vowed it won’t give up that land, but Russia wants the whole region — a major demand that President Vladimir Putin has shown no desire to compromise on. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest, is occupied by Russia but each side wants control of it in a deal.
The Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is one of the 10 biggest in the world.AP
American negotiators have previously floated the concept of establishing a “free economic zone” in Donbas, but Zelenskyy said Monday there is “no detailed concept” of how that would work yet, and that Ukrainian society would need to be consulted on any such agreement.
In fact, he said the whole 20-point peace plan should be put to a referendum in Ukraine, which he said would require a ceasefire of at least 60 days.
Moscow has ruled out agreeing to any temporary ceasefires, insisting that it was only interested in a permanent peace agreement — a position that Trump said Sunday he understood.