Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is to meet US President Donald Trump in Florida this weekend, but Russia on Friday accused him and his EU backers of seeking to “torpedo” a US-brokered plan to stop the fighting.
Today’s meeting to discuss new peace proposals comes amidst Trump’s intensified efforts to broker an agreement on Europe’s worst conflict since World War II.
The latest plan is a 20-point proposal that would freeze the war on its current front line, but open the door for Ukraine to pull back troops from the east, where demilitarized buffer zones could be created, according to details revealed by Zelenskiy this week.
Photo: AF
Trump said Zelenskiy “doesn’t have anything until I approve it,” adding: “So we’ll see what he’s got.”
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian leader said he held telephone talks with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and a host of other European leaders ahead of his latest diplomatic foray.
A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the leaders “reiterated their unshakeable commitment for a just and lasting peace for Ukraine, and the importance that talks continue to progress towards this in the coming days.”
The new plan includes separate US-Ukraine bilateral agreements on security guarantees, reconstruction and the economy.
“As for sensitive issues, we will discuss [the eastern region of] Donbas and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and we will certainly discuss other issues,” Zelenskiy said.
Russia signaled its opposition to the plan ahead of the Florida talks.
The Kremlin said that Russian foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov had held telephone talks with US officials and Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Ryabkov criticized Zelenskiy’s stance.
“Our ability to make the final push and reach an agreement will depend on our own work and the political will of the other party,” Ryabkov said. “Especially in a context where Kyiv and its sponsors — notably within the European Union, who are not in favor of an agreement — have stepped up efforts to torpedo it.”
The proposal drawn up with Zelenskiy’s input “differs radically” from points initially drawn up by US and Russian officials in contacts this month, he said.
“Without an adequate resolution of the problems at the origin of this crisis, it will be quite simply impossible to reach a definitive accord,” Ryabkov added.
He said any deal had to “remain within the limits” fixed by Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin when they met in Alaska in August, or else “no accord can be reached.”
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