Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, Donald Trump, and their delegations at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, December 28, 2025

EA-War on Politics 24 VideoCast: Can Ukraine and Europe Break Putin’s Invasion?

Sunday’s Coverage: Zelensky to Meet Trump in Florida

UPDATE 0709 GMT:

Christopher Miller of the Financial Times gets to the point after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky’s meeting with Donald Trump in Florida.

Look, cutting through it all, an end to Russia’s war is still a long way off. There are no agreements on security guarantees, no western partner of Ukraine ready and willing right now to pledge anything strong enough to deter Russia.

And Trump, who continued today to heap praise on Putin and initiated a call with him before meeting Zelensky, is unwilling to do the tough work that is necessary to press Russia to negotiate an end to its invasion in earnest. Trump wants an end to the war and he doesn’t care how it happens.

Putin has been very clear he wants to continue fighting. Ukraine, understandably, is unwilling to surrender and be subjugated to Moscow.

So, where does this leave us? Far from peace and with a lot of work still to do.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin’s top financial advisor Kirill Dmitriev is playing to Trump’s ego on social media.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Meeting Donald Trump in Florida, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has maintained the line against Russia’s invasion, even as Trump praised Vladimir Putin.

Zelensky discussed Ukraine-Europe proposals over security guarantees, territory, reconstruction, and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. He posted after the “wonderful meeting” and press conference at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort:

We had a meaningful discussion on all issues and highly appreciate the progress made by the Ukrainian and American teams over the past few weeks.

We discussed all aspects of the peace framework and achieved significant results. We also discussed the sequence of further actions.

We agree that security guarantees are key to achieving lasting peace, and our teams will continue to work on all aspects.

He said the Ukrainian and US teams will meet next week to “finalize all discussed issues”, with Trump hosting Ukrainian and European leaders at the White House in January.

At the press conference, Trump hailed “good progress” but he tipped off his unwillingness to give Ukraine a firm assurance against Russian demands for more territory, particularly the rest of the Donetsk region in the east.

The reality TV star said “one or two thorny issues remain”, notably the “unresolved” matter of territory.

In a few weeks we will know one way or the other.

We could have something where one item that you’re not thinking about is a big item, breaks it up. Look, it’s been a very difficult negotiation.

He said he believed Russia’s demands could be resolved but did not indicate how.

Zelensky made clear that Ukraine would not give up Donetsk or any other area. He said any proposal must be confirmed by a referendum among Ukrainian citizens.

We have to respect our law and our people and the territory which we control….

Our society has to choose…because it’s their land….It’s the land of our nation, for a lot of generations.

Trump’s Praise of Putin

Just before Trump saw Zelensky, the Kremlin tried to manipulate the American with a 75-minute call from Vladimir Putin.

The effort appeared to succeed: Although Trump did not press Moscow’s demands, he gushed over Vladimir Putin at the press conference.

Even as Russia carried out more intense missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian civilians and energy infrastructure, Trump proclaimed, “They’re going to be helping. Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed.”

He claimed Putin, who is demanding control of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine, is “working with Ukraine on getting it open. He’s been very good in that sense. He wants to see that open.”

Bizarrely, given Russian troops seized the complex in March 2022, Trump’s evidence was that Putin “hasn’t hit it with missiles”.

Even more curious was Trump’s assurance:

Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed. It sounds a little strange but President Putin was very generous in his feeling toward Ukraine succeeding, including supplying energy, electricity and other things at very low prices.

Trump continued, with his fixation on coverage of Russian influence operations and his Presidential campaign in 2016:

I saw a very interesting President Putin today. I mean, he wants to see it happen. He wants to see it. He told me very strongly. I believe him.

Don’t forget, we went through the Russia Russia Russia hoax together and he’d call me, I’d call him, I’d say “Can you believe the stuff they’re making up?’ It turned out we were right. They made it all up.”

A Ukrainian activist summarized:

Meanwhile, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, citing a call with Zelensky and Trump, maintained support of Kyiv and the Ukraine-Europe proposals.

Declaring that “we are making progress on the security guarantees that will be central to building a just and lasting peace”, French President Emmanuel Macron said Paris will host a meeting of Ukraine and its international partners in early January “to finalize each country’s concrete contributions”.