U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met in Florida on Sunday amid ongoing peace talks to end the war in Ukraine.
During a news conference after their meeting, Trump and Zelenskyy struck an optimistic tone but noted that challenges remain.
“You can say 95% but I don’t like to say percentages. I just think we’re doing very well,” Trump said. “There are one or two very thorny issues, very tough issues, but I think we’re doing very well. We made a lot of progress today.”
“We had a really great discussion,” Zelenskyy added. “We discussed all the aspects of the peace framework.”
Zelenskyy said that the deal as a whole was 90% agreed, saying U.S., Europe and Ukraine security guarantees are “almost agreed.”
Trump said the best case scenario is in “a few weeks” to get a final deal done.
“I think we’ll get it done,” he said. “I don’t want to say when, but I think we’ll get it done.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen posted on X that European leaders had a “good, one-hour long call” with both Zelenskyy and Trump.
“There was good progress, which we welcomed,” von der Leyen wrote. “Europe is ready to keep working with Ukraine and our US partners to consolidate this progress.”
Sunday’s meeting comes just over a day after Russia launched a massive missile attack on Ukraine’s capital, killing at least one person and injuring at least 20.
Zelenskyy said Saturday in a post on X that the Russian attack involved almost 500 drones and 40 missiles.
“Russia continues to mock our cities and people. Moscow has rejected even the proposals for a Christmas ceasefire and is increasing the ferocity of its missile and drone strikes. This is a clear signal of how they really feel about diplomacy,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. “So far, it has not been taken seriously enough. Therefore, Ukraine needs sufficient support. And sufficient pressure needs to be put on Russia.”
Earlier Sunday Trump said that he had spoken to Putin shortly before this meeting began and planned to speak with him again after the meeting ended. The Kremlin later confirmed that the call had taken place, according to Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov.
“You gotta make a deal,” Trump said when asked what he told Putin. “You got to get it done. Too many people dying, and I think both presidents want to make a deal. I do believe that.”
