Russia says it agrees with Trump that Ukraine peace talks are of their ‘remaining stage’ as Zelensky reveals 15-year US safety assure

Russia has said it agrees with US President Donald Trump that the Ukraine peace talks are in their ‘final stage’.

It came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that the US is offering his country security guarantees for a period of 15 years as part of a proposed peace plan. 

Trump on Sunday celebrated the success of his highly anticipated peace talks with Zelensky, revealing they are ‘very close’ to striking an agreement on all but ‘one or two thorny issues’.

The President had earlier welcomed the Ukrainian leader to his Mar-a-Lago estate with open arms when he arrived in Florida to discuss a 20-point plan aimed at ending the almost four years of war with Russia.

But the duo admitted afterwards that they couldn’t find middle ground on some of the most difficult issues, including future ownership of the Donbas region, Ukrainian territory which it has been fighting to protect throughout the war. 

Asked by journalists on Monday if Moscow agreed with Trump’s optimistic assessment following his talks with the Ukrainian President, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: ‘Of course.’

Addressing the media on Sunday, Trump said: ‘We’ve made a lot of progress today, but really we’ve made it over the last month. This is not a one-day process deal. There’s very complicated stuff.’

Asked what contentious issues remain unsolved, Trump said: ‘I think the land you’re talking about, some of that land has been taken.

‘Some of that land is maybe up for grabs, but it may be taken over the next period of a number of months, and you’re better off making a deal.’

The White House is offering Ukraine security guarantees for a period of 15 years as part of a proposed ceasefire deal, the Ukrainian President said Monday.

Zelensky added that he would prefer an American commitment of up to 50 years to deter Russia from further attempts to seize its neighbour’s land by force, however.

Following discussions on Sunday, negotiators are still searching for a breakthrough on key issues, including whose forces withdraw from where and the fate of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, one of the 10 biggest in the world. 

Trump noted that the monthslong US-led negotiations could still collapse. ‘In a few weeks, we will know one way or the other, I think…. But it could also go poorly,’ he told reporters.

‘Without security guarantees, realistically, this war will not end,’ Zelensky told journalists in voice messages responding to questions sent via a Whatsapp chat.

Ukraine has been fighting Russia since 2014, when it illegally annexed Crimea and Moscow-backed separatists took up arms in the Donbas, a vital industrial region in eastern Ukraine.

Details of the proposed security guarantees have not become public but Zelensky said Monday that they include how a peace deal would be monitored as well as the ‘presence’ of partners. 

He didn’t elaborate, but Russia has said it won’t accept the deployment in Ukraine of troops from NATO countries.

Kremlin spokesman Peskov said Monday that Russian President Putin and Trump were expected to speak in the near future but there was no indication the Russian leader would speak to Zelensky.

While Putin has shown little interest in negotiating a peace deal, Zelensky said on Saturday that Ukraine is ‘willing to do whatever it takes to stop this war’.

‘If the whole world – Europe and America – is on our side, together we will stop Putin,’ he wrote on X. But, ‘if anyone – whether the US or Europe – is on Russia’s side, this means the war will continue,’ he added.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Kyiv’s allies will meet in Paris in early January to ‘finalise each country’s concrete contributions’ to the security guarantees.

Trump said he would consider extending US security guarantees for Ukraine beyond 15 years, according to Zelensky.

The guarantees would be approved by the US Congress as well as by parliaments in other countries involved in overseeing any settlement, he said.

Zelensky said he wants the 20-point peace plan under discussion to be approved by Ukrainians in a national referendum.

However, holding a ballot requires a ceasefire of at least 60 days, and Moscow has shown no willingness for a truce without a full settlement.

When Trump was asked about what the timeline for the end of the war could look like, he noted there are still several hurdles on the road to peace. 

‘In a few weeks, we will know one way or the other,’ he said. ‘We could have something where one item that you’re not thinking about is a big item and breaks it up.’

He admitted ‘it has been a very difficult negotiation, very detailed’.

America’s revised 20-point plan includes security guarantees to protect Ukraine from future invasions by Moscow – primarily through Ukrainian membership in the EU, and maintaining a peacetime army of 800,000 troops funded by Western allies.  

However, Trump snapped at a reporter who asked about the security guarantees moments before he went into the meeting with Zelensky. 

‘What a stupid question,’ he fumed. ‘Nobody even knows what the security agreement is going to state. There will be a security agreement. It will be a strong agreement. The European nations are very much involved.’

Writing on Truth Social, Trump said on Sunday he had ‘a good and very productive’ phone call with Putin before his talks with Zelensky in Florida later in the day.

‘We’re in final stages of talking… It will either end, or it’s going to go on for a long time and millions of additional people are going to be killed. Nobody wants that,’ he later told reporters.

Trump added that he believes Putin is ready for a ceasefire. ‘There are too many people dying, and I think both presidents want to make a deal,’ he said. 

‘I do believe that we have the makings of a deal that is fit for Ukraine, fit for everybody,’ Trump continued. ‘There is nothing more important. I’ve settled eight wars, and this is the most difficult one.’