“He has nothing until I approve.” Trump, sharp statement about Zelenski, before the meeting in Florida
Donald Trump speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One. Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP / Profimedia
US President Donald Trump believes his weekend meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart can be a productive one and described himself as the ultimate arbiter of any peace deal between Kiev and Moscow, in statements made to Politico.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy will meet with Donald Trump on Sunday in Florida at Mar-a-Lago and told reporters that he will bring with him the draft 20-point peace plan. The framework includes the proposal to create a demilitarized zone and it is believed that the discussion will focus on US security guarantees.
However, in the interview, Trump seemed a little receptive to Zelenskiy's latest proposal and did not rush to support the Ukrainian president's position.
“He doesn't have anything until I approve,” the US leader said. “So we'll see what he has,” he added.
Even so, Donald Trump believes that the meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky can be a productive one.
“I think it will go well with him. I think it will go well with [Vladimir] Putin,” Trump said, adding that he expected to speak with the Russian leader “soon, as much as I want to.”
Zelensky: The peace plan “is 90% ready”
Speaking to reporters on WhatsApp on Friday, Zelenskiy confirmed he would meet with Trump over the weekend and said Ukrainian representatives and international teams had completed drafts of key documents, including on security guarantees and reconstruction plans, the Kyiv Post reported.
“To be honest, the 20-point plan we worked on is 90% ready. Our task is to bring it to 100%. Every meeting and every conversation brings us closer to the desired result,” the Ukrainian leader said.
Also on Friday, he told Axios that he was willing to put the plan to a referendum if Russia agreed to a truce of at least 60 days.
Volodymyr Zelensky announced the condition for holding a referendum on the peace plan
Zelensky this week revealed the content of the agreement he is negotiating with the US, and the draft contains a major concession accepted by the Ukrainian side, regarding the willingness to withdraw its troops from the areas of the eastern Donetsk region still controlled by Kiev and to be transformed into a demilitarized zone. The condition is that Moscow withdraws its forces from an equivalent area in Donetsk.
Russian daily Kommersant wrote on Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin does not accept the compromise proposed by Kiev regarding the Donbas region and wants all the Ukrainian territories it declared annexed in 2022.
According to the newspaper, the Kremlin leader said that Russia may be willing to cede some of the Ukrainian territory controlled by its forces, but that it wants all of Donbas.
