Russian drones, missiles pound Ukraine ahead of Zelensky-Trump meeting

Palm Beach: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump will meet in Florida on Sunday (Monday AEDT) to hammer out a plan to end the war in Ukraine, but they face major differences on crucial issues and provocations from Russian air attacks.

Russia struck Kyiv and other parts of war-torn Ukraine with hundreds of missiles and drones on Saturday, knocking out power and heat in parts of the capital. Zelensky called it Russia’s response to the ongoing US-brokered peace efforts.

Zelensky has told journalists that he plans to discuss the fate of eastern Ukraine’s contested Donbas region during the meeting at Trump’s Florida residence, as well as the future of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and other topics.

Moscow has repeatedly insisted that Ukraine yield all of the Donbas, even areas still under Kyiv’s control, and Russian officials have objected to other parts of the latest proposal, sparking doubts about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would accept whatever Sunday’s talks might produce.

The Ukrainian president told Axios on Friday he still hoped to soften a US proposal for Ukrainian forces to withdraw completely from the Donbas. Failing that, Zelensky said the entire 20-point plan, the result of weeks of negotiations, should be put to a referendum vote.

Axios said US officials viewed Zelensky’s willingness to hold a referendum as a major step forward and a sign that he was no longer ruling out territorial concessions, although he said Russia would need to agree to a 60-day ceasefire to allow Ukraine to prepare for and hold such a vote. A recent poll suggests that Ukrainian voters may also reject the plan.

Zelensky’s in-person meeting with Trump, scheduled for 1pm, Florida time (5am Monday AEDT), follows weeks of diplomatic efforts. European allies, while at times cut out of the loop, have stepped up efforts to sketch out the contours of a post-war security guarantee for Kyiv that would be supported by the United States.

Sticking points over territory

Kyiv and Washington have agreed on many issues, and Zelensky on Friday said the 20-point plan was 90 per cent finished. But the issue of what territory, if any, would be ceded to Russia remains unresolved. While Moscow insists on getting all of the Donbas, Kyiv wants the map frozen at current battle lines.

The US, seeking a compromise, has proposed a free economic zone if Ukraine leaves the area, although it remains unclear how that zone would function in practical terms. Zelensky, whose past meetings with Trump have not always gone smoothly, worries along with his European allies that Trump could sell out Ukraine and leave European powers to foot the bill for supporting a devastated nation, after Russian forces took 12 to 17 square kilometres of its territory per day in 2025.

Russia controls all of Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, and since its invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago, it has taken control of about 12 per cent of its territory, including about 90 per cent of Donbas, 75 per cent of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and slivers of the Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, according to Russian estimates.

Putin on December 19 said he thought a peace deal should be based on conditions he set out in 2024: Ukraine withdrawing from all of the Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and Kyiv officially renouncing its aim to join NATO.

Ukrainian officials and European leaders view the war as an imperial-style land grab by Moscow and have warned that if Russia gets its way with Ukraine, it will one day attack NATO members. The 20-point plan was spun off from a Russian-led 28-point plan, which emerged from talks between US special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev, and which became public in November.

Subsequent talks between Ukrainian officials and US negotiators have produced the more Kyiv-friendly 20-point plan.

Canada, European allies rally behind Kyiv

Saturday’s air attacks showed that Putin did not want peace, Zelensky said to reporters after arriving in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

In a brief statement with Zelensky by his side, Carney said peace “requires a willing Russia”.

“The barbarism that we saw overnight – the attack on Kyiv – shows just how important it is that we stand with Ukraine in this difficult time,” Carney said, pledging $C2.5 billion ($2.7 billion) in additional economic aid to Ukraine.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, who spoke with Zelensky along with other European leaders on Saturday, said on X that their shared objective remained “a just and lasting peace” that preserved Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, while strengthening the country’s security and defence capabilities.

Zelensky said he would speak with European leaders again after his meeting with Trump.

Reuters

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