Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy is preparing to meet Donald Trump in Florida for crucial discussions on ending the war with Russia.
The two presidents are scheduled to meet on Sunday afternoon in Palm Beach, where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club is located, marking the culmination of weeks of intense diplomacy to end the conflict.
Ahead of the meeting, Trump said he held a “good and very productive” telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Zelenskyy is expected to try to lock in the details of a 20-point peace plan developed with the US which is to be presented to Russia. As he prepared for the talks, Zelenskyy remained optimistic about what he called “the most active diplomatic days of the year”.
Zelenskyy told European leaders by phone on Saturday that he did not expect Russia to drop its maximalist demands or agree to Ukraine’s proposed plan, but wanted the US to shift its focus to pressuring Russia, according to two people briefed on their call.
But on Friday Trump made clear that his endorsement of the plan was not guaranteed.
Russia has already indicated it will reject any amendments Ukraine proposes to Trump’s initial plan, which was drafted in the autumn with significant input from Moscow.
On Sunday Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, claimed Kyiv was trying to evade “constructive negotiations” on a way to end the war.
Ukraine struck a Russian oil refinery prior to Trump Zelensky meeting
Ukraine struck a Russian oil refinery overnight, Kyiv’s military said on Sunday, just ahead of a planned meeting between the country’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, and U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida this weekend.
Kyiv has frequently homed in on infrastructure connected to Russian oil and energy exports to cut Kremlin off from funds used to support its war effort. Ukraine has upped its strikes in recent months.
Kyiv carried out a record number of attacks on oil facilities in November, striking 14 times, Bloomberg reported at the start of December, as Moscow doubled down on its own assaults on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Ukraine struck the Syzran oil refinery in Russia’s Samara region, southeast of Moscow, with long-range drones, the Ukrainian military said in a statement. The attack caused a fire at the site, according to Kyiv, but Ukrainian authorities said the extent of the damage was still being assessed.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said early on Sunday its air defenses had detected and taken out 25 Ukrainian drones overnight, nearly half of which were intercepted over Samara. Moscow did not reference an attack on oil facilities in the region.
FINANCIAL TIMES/ NEWSWEEK
