By Janet Ekstract, NEW YORK – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky will be meeting U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday to discuss the peace deal that has been in the works for the last month. When Zelensky spoke to the press on December 26, he told reporters that he isn’t certain whether the Florida meeting will lead to a definite agreement. He did say that both sides will try to “finalize as much as we can,” adding that the 20-point revised peace plan worked out between Ukrainian and U.S. officials is “90% ready.” Zelensky said he will discuss how Ukraine’s allies can guarantee its security in the future when he speaks with Trump. The White House did not confirm the upcoming meeting and Zelensky’s announcement happened after he offered a compromise on some of the more contentious issues that have kept Russia from agreeing to the peace deal. Meanwhile, political analysts and experts on the region have cautioned that Russian President Vladimir Putin will never agree to any peace deal if he can’t take Ukrainian territory and that the Russian leader is not interested in a peace deal.
On December 24, Putin clearly stated that he doesn’t plan to compromise on Russia’s demands for Ukraine to cede territory which has frustrated Trump since he has intensified the push for a peace deal between the two sides. In a speech at the annual meeting of the Russian Defense Ministry, Putin sharply criticized European allies, threatening to take Ukrainian territory by force if necessary but as Putin said: “We would prefer to do this, and eliminate the root causes of the conflict, through diplomacy.” Meanwhile, one day before Putin’s speech, Trump criticized Europe again in a new interview with Politico, accusing European nations of being “weak” and “decaying” due to their immigration policies. Trump insisted in his remarks, that Russia has the “upper hand” in its war on Ukraine and that Zelensky should “start accepting things,” referring to the peace deal. As Trump warned Zelensky: “He’s going to have to get on the ball and start accepting things, you know, when you’re losing.”
Meanwhile, Russia illegally annexed Ukraine’s Donbas region though not completely taken it over yet. According to an analysis by the Institute for the Study of War, at Russia’s current advance rate, it would not be able to seize all of Donbas until August 2027. Recently, Zelensky said his country will not recognize the temporarily occupied part of the eastern Donbas region as legally or de facto Russian. Zelensky recently reiterated: “We need real protection from this Russian history of madness.” As Zelensky’s European allies continue to seek ironclad security guarantees for Ukraine, it is still unclear exactly what the U.S. has in mind for those, which will be one determining factor in whether the peace deal can be agreed to – the other will be Putin’s pride which analysts say won’t allow him to agree to such a deal.
