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KIEV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday he will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida over the weekend.
Zelensky told reporters that the two leaders would discuss security guarantees for Ukraine during Sunday’s talks, and that the 20-point plan under discussion is “about 90% ready.”
Zelensky said an “economic agreement” would also be discussed, but added that he was unable to confirm “whether anything will be finalized by the end.”
The Ukrainian side will also raise “regional issues,” he said. Moscow has insisted that Ukraine give up the remaining territory it still holds in Donbass – an ultimatum that Ukraine has rejected. Russia has captured most of Luhansk and about 70% of Donetsk – the two regions that make up Donbass.
Zelensky said Ukraine “would like the Europeans to get involved,” but doubted whether this would be possible on short notice.
“Without a doubt, we must find in the near future a format in which not only Ukraine and the United States are present, but Europe is also represented,” he said.
The announced meeting is the latest development in a broader US-led diplomatic effort to end the nearly four-year-old Russia-Ukraine war, but the efforts have faced sharply conflicting demands from Moscow and Kiev.
Zelensky’s comments came after he said Thursday he had a “good conversation” with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday that the Kremlin was already in contact with US representatives after Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev recently met with US envoys in Florida.
“It was agreed to continue the talks,” he said.
Trump is engaged in a diplomatic effort to end Russia’s all-out war, which began on February 24, 2022, but his efforts have faced sharply conflicting demands from Moscow and Kiev.
Zelensky said Tuesday he would be willing to withdraw troops from Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end the war if Russia also withdraws and the area becomes a demilitarized zone monitored by international forces.
Although Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday that there has been “slow but steady progress” in peace talks, Russia has given no indication that it will agree to any withdrawal from its seized lands.
On the ground, two people were killed and six others were injured when a guided aerial bomb struck a busy street and set cars on fire in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, on Friday, Mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram.
A guided aerial bomb attack on a house in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region killed one person and wounded three others, while a missile attack on the city of Uman wounded six, local authorities said Friday.
Russian drone attacks on the city of Mykolaiv and its suburbs left a section of the city without electricity overnight on Friday. Energy and port infrastructure were damaged by drones in the city of Odessa on the Black Sea.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said it attacked a major Russian oil refinery on Thursday using Storm Shadow missiles supplied by Britain.
Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces attacked the Novoshakhtinsk refinery in Russia’s Rostov region.
“Several explosions recorded. Target attacked,” it read on Telegram.
Rostov regional governor Yuri Slyusar said one firefighter was injured while extinguishing the blaze.
Ukraine’s long-range drone attacks on Russian refineries are aimed at depriving Moscow of oil export revenues needed to pursue its full-scale invasion. Russia wants to paralyze Ukraine’s power grid, denying citizens access to heat, light and running water, in what Ukrainian officials say is an attempt to “weaponize winter.”
Follow coverage of the war at /hub/russia-ukraine
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications to the text.
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